Answer for The setup documentation shows a requirement for Outlook 2007. Will Outlook 2010 not work for migrations?

The mailbox migration tools from Priasoft currently have a strict requirement for either Outlook 2007 or 2003.  Outlook 2010 and later and not supported for migrations and the tools will prevent you from proceeding if you do not have a supported version of Outlook installed.  Also, to avoid any confusion, Priasoft requirement for Outlook 2007/2003 is ONLY FOR THE MIGRATION TOOLS.  End users can continue to use any supported version of Outlook – the migration tools requirement has no influence or impact on end-user Outlook versions.
Outlook 2007 is the preferred version for the migration tools for several reasons:

  • OL2007 has the broadest support for different versions of Exchange
    • It can connect to Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, and Office365.
    • This is especially important for migrations from Exchange 2003 to Office365.
  • OL2007 has, in our tests, better performance than OL2010 and later.
    • Microsoft has added many features to current versions of Outlook that, while good for end users, work against performance.
    • OL2010 and later consume more memory than prior versions – when running multiple mailboxes at the same time during a migration, available RAM has a direct influence on concurrency.
  • OL2003 is required for migrations from the oldest Exchange environments
    • When migrating from Exchange 5.5 (yes! it still happens), OL2007 cannot connect, only OL2003 will.
    • When migration from Exchange 2000, again OL2007 will not connect and OL2003 is required.

 
Outlook 2007 does not have to be licensed or activated in order to perform a migration – we simply need access to the MAPI libraries that come with Outlook. As such, any installer of Outlook 2007 (or Office 2007) will work.  However, it may be convenient to activate the product if there is a desire to use it for inspection and troubleshooting efforts.  Note: please do not run outlook at the same time that an active migration is executing.
Note the following important points however:

  1. Connections to Exchange 2013 or Office365 (Wave15) absolutely require…
    1. Office 2007 SP3.  For convenience, we have perma-linked the file on our download site here:  http://download.priasoft.com/Support/Office2007Sp3.exe
    2. The November 2012 Rollup for Office 2007.  For convenience, we have perma-linked the file on our download site here:  http://download.priasoft.com/Support/Outlook2007%20SP3%20Nov2012%20Rollup.exe.
  2. We recommend for all other source or target environments to fully patch/update Outlook to the most current available.
  3. Outlook 2007 is only available in a 32bit version
    1. Do not get tricked by some download site offering a 64 bit version.
    2. There is not likely to be any performance improvement by a 64bit version of Outlook.

 
Priasoft is reviewing the support of Outlook 2010.  We recognize that it may be necessary in the future as Exchange 2016 becomes available and when Office365 moves to Wave16 (which is Exchange 2016 on the backend).  We will update this post if things change in the future.