Microsoft Outlook is undoubtedly a powerful app, with its feature set going beyond that of a mere email manager to encompass contacts, calendars and other organizational tools. Everything you do in Outlook is stored in your own personal PST file, but what happens if you find yourself locked out of your PST file, or Outlook no longer recognizes the file?

In extreme cases -- say, you ditched Outlook for another email program -- you may need to refer back to your old email messages, but without Outlook you’re unable to open the PST file. What then? The solution lies in using a free tool called Kernel Outlook PST Viewer.

Feb 19, 2015 - open PST files without Outlook Kernel Outlook PST Viewer enables you to view the content of Outlook PST files even if you don't have Outlook.

Fire up the app, and either load or search for your chosen PST file. Many people have just the one, others utilize multiple files. Either way, Kernel Outlook PST Viewer will allow you to access each and every one, without Outlook being present (if Outlook is present, make sure it’s not running when you launch the program).

Once a file has been opened, you can browse its contents using a similar interface than that found in Outlook itself. Everything can be seen, from emails (organized into their usual folders) to contact lists and calendar entries.

What you will notice, however, is the lack of any editing or exporting tools, and that’s because there are none. This is a pure viewer utility, so while you can browse the contents of your PST file you can’t do anything with the content you find: that means no copying and pasting of emails or email addresses, and no previewing or exporting of file attachments.

Kernel Outlook PST Viewer is largely designed to let you peek into the contents of your PST file, with the idea you’d then explore Lepide Software’s paid-for recovery products if you needed them. But if you simply want to refer back to a past email in a PST file with no access to Outlook it works a treat.

Kernel Outlook PST Viewer is a freeware download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. It can handle PST files from any version of Outlook from 97 onwards.

From Nucleus Technologies: Kernel Outlook PST Viewer software allows you to open PST files even if you don't have MS Office Outlook installed on your system or have an older version of MS Outlook. This intelligently programmed software allows you to open PST files without using MS Office Outlook which means, you do not need MS Office Outlook installed on your system. You just download Kernel Outlook PST Viewer, install it on your system and launch it. As soon as you launch it, it'll ask you to browse the PST file you want to open. Browse the PST file, select it and click Ok. The software quickly scans for the asked PST file and displays its contents such as Inbox, Drafts, Outbox, Sent Items, etc. in the MS Office Outlook's hierarchical manner. The software supports both ANSI and Unicode formats of PST files which make it even more useful. The software also makes it possible to copy and print TXT and HTML e-mails successfully.

Kernel Outlook PST Viewer software allows you to see the content of PST files with minor corruptions. The software also enables viewing the PST files which got corrupted due to 2GB size issue. The user friendly software also allows you to view password protected PST files even if you are unaware of the password. The software has got a built-in search option as well which allows you to search for a specific PST file in case you don't remember its location. One can also have a clear preview of generated PST file analysis report highlighting details of items types, mail flow density as per data or sender, interaction made via mail between sender & receiver and so on. Kernel Outlook PST Viewer software supports all available versions of MS Outlook (97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013) and Windows OS (2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7 and 8). The software has a self-descriptive Graphical User Interface (GUI) and thus, doesn't require any kind of technical or non-technical assistance to operate.

What do you need to know about free software?