Planning Your Upgrade to Outlook 2000

Planning Your Upgrade to Outlook 2000

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Because Microsoft Outlook 2000 is compatible with earlier versions of Outlook and can share files with other Microsoft e-mail and calendar applications, upgrading strategies typically involve only preparation and distribution issues. When you decide how you want your upgrade to proceed, and you identify the applications required, upgrading to Outlook 2000 is a simple process.

Before you start the upgrade process, you must make the following decisions:

• Decide whether you want Corporate/Workgroup or Internet Mail Only support.
• Decide whether you want to use Microsoft Schedule+ as your calendar or the Outlook 2000 Calendar.
• Decide which browser you want to use.
• Decide which security settings you want for your users.

Perform the following tasks to prepare for the upgrade process.

• Clean up your existing e-mail folders.

  For example, delete any unnecessary e-mail messages or personal folders.

• Create a backup copy of your existing e-mail folders.

  This task prevents you from permanently losing data during the upgrade process.

Tip   Although Microsoft Office 2000 works with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, it is recommended that you upgrade to Internet Explorer 5, which is included with Office 2000. Because of the offline capabilities of Internet Explorer 5, it’s much easier for Outlook 2000 users to download and store any folder home pages so that they can be modified offline.

You can easily upgrade to Outlook 2000 from previous Microsoft e-mail and calendar applications. You can install Outlook 2000 over an Outlook 97 or Outlook 98 installation. Like other Office 2000 applications, Outlook 2000 migrates user settings stored in the registry. In addition, if a Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) profile already exists on a user’s computer, Outlook 2000 continues to use the profile.

As an administrator, it is recommended that you plan upgrade strategies for the following scenarios:

• A one-time upgrade to Outlook 2000.
• A gradual upgrade to Outlook 2000.

If you plan a gradual upgrade, Outlook users might need to exchange e-mail messages and scheduling data with users of other Microsoft e-mail and calendar applications.

See also

You can deploy Outlook separately from the rest of Office 2000. For more information, see Installing Outlook 2000 After Installing Office 2000.