Using MKLINK on Outlook 2013 data files in a User subfolder

Outlook 2013 stores the .PST file for POP3 accounts in the C:\Documents\Outlook Files folder making it very convent to back up email, calendars, contact and rules. Unfortunately .OST files for any IMAP account(s) are stored in another folder C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook making it a little less convenient to make a quick backup. I believe that Outlook 2016 will allow you to keep the .OST and the .PST together in the Outlook Files folder in Documents.

Since I don’t plan to upgrade to Office 2016 just for this feature, I found an article that suggest using a symbolic like to relocate .OST files in Outlook 2013. The articles is at:
https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/...ookcomimap.htm

However, I recall reading somewhere, maybe it was regarding Win 8.1, that using a soft symbolic link (MKLINK) would interfere with future upgrades. Does anyone know or have any observations this is true? I’d like to hear as many opinions as possible since we have a major update coming on August 2. Thanks for your input.

One never knows what an upgrade will do. Each upgrade is like a new OS install. You could always just write a small script to execute after every upgrade to re-set it.

Hi Mystere,
Good point.
Outlook gets really cranky when you mess with its data files. Since I move all of the important emails from my IMAP accounts inboxes to my POP3 folders, the worst thing that could happen is that I would need to recreate the IMAP accounts and import the email rules. BTW, I've learned the hard way the restoring a drive with Outlook data files does not always restore the email rules correctly. Most of the time the IMAP rules just completely disappear. Hugh disaster if you have a lot of IMAP rules!