How to Find Scanpst.exe in Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007?

Summary: The post discusses how to search for the location of scanpst.exe, an Inbox Repair Tool in Windows Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007 versions, as well as run it for the repair of their respective PST file, which is created by default. 

Know the necessity of Outlook’s Inbox Repair Tool 

When the need is to fix your Outlook Personal Folders (PST) file, it becomes necessary for you to find Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe). The reason being, scanpst.exe is Outlook’s built-in repair utility that can fix damaged PST files and turn them healthy. It performs the repair process by checking for integrity errors, and if present, removes them to give you error-free Outlook data files.

It is a kind of first-aid PST repair tool provided by Microsoft in its proprietary Windows Outlook desktop email client. Its purpose is to scan the PST file, and subsequently, repair Outlook PST file.

Although the location of the utility is fixed and same by default depending on the Outlook and Windows versions, you, like many others may be unaware of it. Also, the older Outlook releases such as 2007 permitted access to the tool in a quite easy way to the Outlook/Office Diagnostics feature, the newer versions such as Outlook 2016, 2013, and 2010 make it considerably difficult to run the tool.

Thus, through this blog, the location of scanpst.exe in these new releases, as well as Outlook 2007, is revealed. Once the location is known, you can efficiently run it to get the corrupted Personal Folders file repaired. Consequently, you will be able to access its data items such as emails, its attachments, contacts, calendar, tasks, journals, and all other data files that went inaccessible because it turned corrupt.

Know where is scanpst.exe in Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007 versions

The location of a scanpst.exe tool based on different Outlook versions are as follows:

Outlook 2016

• For Click-to-Run installation on a 64-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
• For Click-to-Run installation on a 32-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
• For MSI-based installation on a 64-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16
• For MSI-based installation on a 32-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16

Outlook 2013

• For Click-to-Run installation on a 32-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15
• For Click-to-Run installation on a 64-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15
• For MSI-based installation on a 32-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15
• For MSI-based installation on a 64-bit version of Windows: <C>\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15

Outlook 2010

• On a 32-bit edition of Windows: <C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14
• On a 64-bit edition of Windows: <C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office(x86)\Office14

Outlook 2007

• On a 32-bit release of Windows: <C>\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12
• On a 64-bit release of Windows: <C>\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12

Note: Here, ‘C’ is the disk drive. The destination path as stated above should be followed to locate the scanpst.exe.

Using Outlook built-in scanpst.exe tool

Once, the scanpst.exe is located, you must run it by double-clicking the file. On doing this, a window will pop up requesting you to select the damaged PST file that you want to scan. Next, you should browse the Outlook’s Personal Folders file, and click on the Start tab to scan the PST file to be repaired.  With this, the errors in the file are removed, and the file fixed, provided the file suffers minor corruption.

Below is the screenshot:

Note – To be able to run the tool successfully, you must know the location of the file to be repaired. Plus, you must exit from Outlook as well as all applications that are mail-enabled. Moreover, the process is slow and the utility incapable of fighting severe corruption cases.

What Can I do If ScanPST.exe Doesn’t Work?

The scanpst.exe tool possesses several disadvantages due to which it fails to restore Outlook’s Personal Folders file sometimes. For instance, it requires manual execution, consumes time, is incapable of handling severely damaged PST, etc. It is because of these drawbacks that a utility possessing automatic, a short run-time and powerful algorithm should be preferred. According to MS Outlook expert’s opinion, you can try third party software like Stellar PST Repair tool to repair outlook pst file when ScanPST.exe fails. The free version of the software provides a preview of emails, calendar, attachments, folders, etc. Thus, use it to experience the difference when the need is to repair Outlook PST file.