Recovering items that have been deleted from the deleted items folder is only available in Microsoft Outlook if you are using an Exchange Server email account.
By default you can only get to the “Recover deleted items” option on the tools menu if you have the deleted items folder selected.
This doesn’t really make much sense because you can shift-delete an item from any folder and that permanently deletes it bypassing the deleted items folder.
The retention times for keeping these deleted items is set on your Exchange Server, I think the default might be only 1 day, so if you permanently deleted items beyond that retention time you are out of luck. I changed our retention time to 14 days. The settings for this are found when you right-click on your mailbox store
With the following registry change you can get to the “Recover deleted items” option on the tools menu from any Outlook folder:
Caution If you use the registry editor incorrectly, you might cause serious problems that might require you to reinstall your operating system. Use the registry editor at your own risk.
1. Exit Outlook.
2. Open the Windows registry editor.
3. Browse to My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options.
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type the name DumpsterAlwaysOn.Note Do not type any spaces in the name.
6. Set the DWORD value to 1.
7. Restart Outlook.
The Tools menu now has the Recover Deleted Items command for every Outlook folder.