Removing Outlook Data Files

Automating the removal of Outlook data files is a tedious process that is difficult to automate. The registry key is a data hash that is unique on each system. Here is a script I wrote that will do just that. This script will remove the data file from Outlook when run under the end-user's credentials. The script parses through the HKU and removes the registry entry for that key. The complete description is in the code below and you can download it from here.

 <#  
 .Author  
      Mick Pletcher  
 .SYNOPSIS  
   Outlook Data Folder  
 .DESCRIPTION  
   This script will remove the Outlook data folder. In order to use this script,  
   you will need to obtain the powershell translated hexadecimal key. The very first  
   thing to do is to go into regedit and manually find the registry key associated with  
   the outlook data folder. You do this by opening up each registry key and to the right  
   is the ASCII translated data. Once you have found this, the next thing to do is to note  
   the name of the key containing the data. Now run the GetHKUBinaryKeyValue function with  
   the DeleteHKUBinaryKeyValue commented out. This will generate the list of keys and  
   give you the translated value that PowerShell is reading. copy the translated value. Now  
   comment out the GetHKUBinaryKeyValue and uncomment the DeleteHKUBinaryKeyValue. Pass the  
   translated value into the function as the second variable. You can see the examples below.  
   This is intended to run as the end user. I ended up running it via a GPO as the user, under  
   their credentials. It worked like a charm.  
 .EXAMPLE  
      GetHKUBinaryKeyValue "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Default Outlook Profile"  
      DeleteHKUBinaryKeyValue "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Default Outlook Profile" "101 0 68 0 79 0 67 0 83 0 32 0 68 0 77 0 0 0"  
 #>  
   
 Function GetHKUBinaryKeyValue ($RegKey, $KeyVal) {  
      Set-Variable -Name HKUsers -Scope Local -Force  
        
      Set-Variable -Name i -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name Key -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name SubKey -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name SubKeys -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name Temp -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name Value -Scope Local -Force  
        
      $Temp = New-PSDrive HKU Registry HKEY_USERS  
      $HKUsers = Get-ChildItem HKU:\ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  
      ForEach ($User in $HKUsers) {  
           [string]$Key = $User.Name  
           $Key = $Key -replace "HKEY_USERS", "HKU:"  
           $Key = $Key+"\"+$RegKey  
           If (Test-Path $Key) {  
                $Subkeys = Get-ChildItem $Key -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  
                Foreach ($SubKey in $SubKeys) {  
                     Write-host $SubKey  
                     For ($i=0; $i -lt $Subkey.ValueCount; $i++) {  
                          [string]$Value = $Subkey.GetValue($Subkey.Property[$i])  
                          Write-Host "  "$Subkey.Property[$i]" : "$Value  
                          If ($Value -eq $KeyVal) {  
                               $DeleteKey = $true  
                          }  
                     }  
                     Write-Host  
                }  
           }  
      }  
   
      Remove-Variable -Name HKUsers -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name i -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name Key -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name SubKey -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name SubKeys -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name Temp -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name Value -Scope Local -Force  
 }  
   
 Function DeleteHKUBinaryKeyValue ($RegKey, $KeyVal) {  
      Set-Variable -Name HKUsers -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name i -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name Key -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name SubKey -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name SubKeys -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name Temp -Scope Local -Force  
      Set-Variable -Name Value -Scope Local -Force  
        
      $Temp = New-PSDrive HKU Registry HKEY_USERS  
      $HKUsers = Get-ChildItem HKU:\ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  
      ForEach ($User in $HKUsers) {  
           [string]$Key = $User.Name  
           $Key = $Key -replace "HKEY_USERS", "HKU:"  
           $Key = $Key+"\"+$RegKey  
           If (Test-Path $Key) {  
                $Subkeys = Get-ChildItem $Key -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  
                Foreach ($SubKey in $SubKeys) {  
                     For ($i=0; $i -lt $Subkey.ValueCount; $i++) {  
                          [string]$Value = $Subkey.GetValue($Subkey.Property[$i])  
                          If ($Value -eq $KeyVal) {  
                               $DeleteKey = $true  
                          }  
                     }  
                     If ($DeleteKey -eq $true) {  
                          [string]$SubKey1 = $SubKey  
                          $SubKey1 = $SubKey1 -replace "HKEY_USERS", "HKU:"  
                          If (Test-Path $SubKey1) {  
                               Remove-Item $SubKey1 -Force  
                          }  
                          $DeleteKey = $false  
                     }  
                }  
           }  
      }  
   
      Remove-Variable -Name HKUsers -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name i -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name Key -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name SubKey -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name SubKeys -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name Temp -Scope Local -Force  
      Remove-Variable -Name Value -Scope Local -Force  
 }  
   
 cls  
 #GetHKUBinaryKeyValue "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Default Outlook Profile"  
 DeleteHKUBinaryKeyValue "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Default Outlook Profile" "101 0 68 0 79 0 67 0 83 0 32 0 68 0 77 0 0 0"