How to recover deleted items in Microsoft Outlook 2003

This article explains how to how to recover deleted items in Microsoft Outlook 2003.

Microsoft Outlook 2003 has a feature that lets you recover your deleted items after you've emptied your Deleted Items folder. If you click on the Tools menu, you'll see a Recover Deleted Items option. You will find though, that the option is often greyed out. This can be a real pain if you've just mistekenly deleted an item. Here's how to enable the option:


- Close Microsoft Outlook 2003

- Press Windows key + R (This will bring up the Run dialog)

- In the Run dialog box type regedit and press Enter

- Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options

- On the right hand window pane you will see a few string values. Ignore them. Right-click anywhere in the white space and select New->DWORD Value

- Type in DumpsterAlwaysOn as the DWORD's name. Now double-click on DumpsterAlwaysOn and change the value to 1 [See pic below]



You can now close the Registry Editor window.

- Open Microsoft Outlook 2003. Click Tools->Recover Deleted Items

- You should see a list of items you recently deleted. Select what you want restored and click the Recover Selected Items button. [See pic below]




The items will then appear in your Deleted Items folder.

This post was written by: cyberst0rm

Blogging about technology since 2007. Feel free to leave a comment below.