Running outlook on 2 pcs duplicate mail

[angrysquirrel]

Hello,


I am running outlook 2002 with windows xp service pack 2.  I have outlook installed to an external hard drive.  I plug the external hard drive into both my notebook computer and my desktop computer.  I set up outlook this way so that I could access the same .pst from both computers and without having to worry about having duplicate emails or missing emails on either of the PC's.  

I found out that was not meant to be.  The install went fine.  However, whenever I plug my USB hard drive with outlook and the .pst datafile into either PC, outlook asks for the CD because it "detects a serious change in my machine configuration."  I then have to reinsert the office CD and click next to reactivate outlook. Then I have restart outlook.

How can I set this up so that I have the outlook install on the hard drive and be able to swap the drive from one system to another without this error message?  I was thinking of just installing outlook on the desktop and the laptop, and then browsing to the .pst file each time open up outlook.

Thanks for your help!

[vibhor_agarwalin]

Why don't you install outlook on your Pc and Laptop and access your .pst file from the external disk.

[angrysquirrel]

Hi Vibor,

If I do that will I have any problems with duplicate mail items being downloaded from the comcast mail server?    Thanks!

 

[GX1_Man]

Read e-mail via webmail on both. It is then kept on the server and both machines can access it equally. Once one or the other machines downloads it to Outlook or whatever, it resides there, and is unavailable to the other unless forwarded back to the same email address and then they can both view on web mail again.

It sounds more complicated than it is. I do it all the time, and it is a MUCH simpler option. No portable drives to totae around and have all of this frustration about.