How do you work?

Q. How do you know when it's time to re-evaluate the way you work and the way you store data?

A. When it takes over 24 hours just to import the old Outlook PST file

Before you look at me all confused. I've been working with a Toshiba Satellite L300 for well over a year or so now, and sadly, it's mouse button has broke, and it's become as unstable as hell. Yes, I could've just wiped Windows and re-installed it, but it's not as simple as that, for various reasons.

My accountant however, great bloke that he is, saved me some money on the 2009/2010 tax bill, so I used the savings to get myself a new machine - an HP G61-401SA. The new machine comes with Windows 7 (wiped everything off of it of course, as HP still bundles WildTangent (known malware) and whatnot, then imaged the clean version of the OS so I had a restoration backup point), and I figured I'd upgrade to Office 2010 whilst I was transferring everything.

There's several problems I've noticed with Outlook 2010 thus far that are annoying me, and that's before I actually have a chance to use it;

1. I can't point the account it created, to my existing PST, meaning I've got to import the existing PST instead (major PITA)

2. Most of the stuff I use has either been moved, or is gone (viewing in plain text for example, isn't an option in the program options - it's been moved to the Trust Center options), and the spam buttons have automagically vanished from the god awful ribbon (miss my standard menu).

3. The folder list, calendar, to do list etc, are all in lovely grey - why? What was wrong with their being white? (they were certainly easier on the eye, and easier to distinguish from a greyed out menu option)

4. I can't import the PST into the account I had to create (sure it gives me the option to import it into the existing folder, but it completely ignored that when I selected it, and started importing it as a new folder)

Worst of all however, is the time it takes to import the PST from Outlook 2007. My PST file is just under 6GB in size, and I started importing it yesterday afternoon - it still hadn't finished by 4AM THIS MORNING. Woke up to find it had finished - but it hadn't - the progress dialog had gone, but there was nothing there.

I'm now having to import the damn thing manually (i.e. going to the Data File dialog, telling Outlook to use my old PST file, then moving everything over to the new PST file from there). The problem of course, is that it's taking bleedin hours to move everything, and it wasn't exactly fast to begin with. It's been moving one folder across now for over 2 hours, and the "remaining" time keeps flitting between 9 hours > 4 hours > 2 hours > 60 mins > 25 mins > back to x hours etc etc. When it does get back to the end of the bar (i.e. 0 seconds remaining), it seems to start all over again - why? (it's done this 3 times now). At this rate, it's going to take days to move everything across :o(

Oh and whilst we're here, a few things for Microsoft to read (as if they're going to, but I can dream);

1. A mail client should be a mail client - it should NOT attempt to be a social network monitor aswell (i.e. the "People Pane"), and this certainly shouldn't be enabled by default

2. The Preview Pane should NEVER be enabled by default (every version of Outlook I've used, has had it enabled by default, and it's a huge security risk)

3. STOP HAVING HTML EMAIL ENABLED BY DEFAULT!!!!!!! (every version of Outlook I've used, has had it enabled by default, and it's a huge security risk)

4. Give us our damn export options back (i.e. the ability to export e-mail ACCOUNT settings).

5. Start allowing us to simply move our PST files across, instead of having to import them

Sadly, I can't do anything with the machine whilst it's processing the PST file contents, so I'm stuck writing this from the test machine (yipee). Which also means, anyone that's e-mailed me, is unfortunately, going to have to wait a while for a reply (sorry guys).

Still got all of my development and analysis stuff to move over yet too :o( oh joy.