Feature Request: Open/Search Multiple Files

[dijji]

Feature Request: Open/Search Multiple Files

[Dijji]

Your scenario certainly makes sense.

I do the same thing with my own .pst files. However, this is mostly about keeping the files to a manageable size, as there is no big penalty involved in even very large .pst files. The real limitation comes with the size of a single folder: opening a folder involves building a table describing all the messages in it, which can involve gigabytes of memory for very large folders.

So even if I had, nominally, multiple open files, this would just involve showing their folder trees on the left, but only opening one folder at a time, just as Outlook does.

Search would involve a serial search through a series of folders. One question would be, which folders? All folders in all open files? A set of folders selected in the folder tree? Note that search times could get very long, as only one folder will be open at a time. Another question is, if you still have to use the open file dialog multiple times before a search, is the saving very significant compared to repeated open/search operations, if the search criteria are retained across file open? Or would some entirely different packaging, for instance, as a command line program, be more appropriate? There is some partially complete work in progress on a command line version which could be a vehicle.

Also, are there any other multi file scenarios which might help determine the answers and drive up the priority of this work?

[AdamJCavanaugh]

In my particular use-case, I do have all my emails in just 1 folder in each PST, but it seems that, regardless, opening one or many files with as many emails as I'm describing has serious performance and memory considerations.

I would expect such a search to check all folders in all open files, but a dialogue to select specific ones might also be helpful in some circumstances.

As a SysAdmin, a CLI option would be ideal, frankly... I'm sorry I don't know the first thing about C# to actually help.