How to Clear the Full Memory in Microsoft Outlook

By Marie Cartwright

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Microsoft Outlook can quickly become bogged down with archived emails. If you are changing email addresses and want to get rid of everything associated with your old account, you may be looking to scrub your system clean of all your old data. This requires two separate tasks. Deleting the user profiles from Outlook is the first step, but this still leaves user data on your hard drive in the form of .pst files. To clean out everything, you must delete both the user profiles and the .pst files.

Step 1

Open the "File" tab in Outlook. Click "Account Settings" and open the "Data" tab. This will show a list of all the .pst files associated with your installation of Outlook. Select the first one and click "Open Folder Location." The folder window will open. Minimize this window.

Step 2

Shut down Outlook. Open the "Start" menu, type "Mail" into the search field and press "Enter." This will open the "Mail Setup" window.

Step 3

Click the "Show Profiles" button. A list will appear displaying all Outlook profiles associated with your software.

Step 4

Select the first profile in the list. Click the "Remove" button. Repeat this step for all profiles. Click "Ok" when finished.

Step 5

Return to the folder opened in Step 1. Select all .pst files and press the "Delete" key. When prompted as to whether you are sure if you want to send these files to the Recycle Bin, click "Yes."

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