The setup wizard is designed to be straightforward for end users to run by themselves. The setup wizard can be placed on a file server, so it need not be individually installed on end-user workstations. However, the physical installation of the plug-in on user desktops requires access privileges that often are disallowed to many or most end users. If users do not have installation privileges for their own desktops, either of the following strategies may be used:
Administrators physically install the plug-in on individual users' desktops.
Use a configuration management tool to “push” the software to multiple users' desktops (explained in Automated Installation Using Configuration Management Tools).
After the software has been physically copied to a user's desktop, the user can run the setup wizard to configure the software and convert existing Personal Folders (.pst) files.
End users who run the conversion program will provide their own credentials for the servers. This method therefore permits conversion of password-protected .pst files (see Password-Protected Personal Stores in Outlook below), and lets users specify which of their personal stores should be converted for use with the plug-in.
Users can read unconverted email messages, but cannot reply to them because unconverted addresses are unfamiliar to the new server. Users who have some personal stores that are very old, so that the need for a future reply is highly unlikely, may therefore opt to leave such files unconverted. The conversions can run in the background, freeing the user's computer for other work, but the process is likely to slow the performance of other applications.
The significant downsides of interactive user installation are:
Increased demand for support from your organization's help desk, which may be considerable depending on users' technical skills and the complexity of “before” and “after” network configurations.
Time and effort the administrator has to devote to visiting multiple user workstations to physically copy the software to the users' desktops (for users who are not authorized to perform that task for themselves).