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  Asked: Feb 20 2008   1:17 PM GMT
  Asked by: KyleFreeman

Windows says it can't find Word 2002 attachments in Outlook Express


Outlook Express, Email attachments, Word 2002

I have a client who cannot open Microsoft Word attachments in Outlook Express. She gets the following message (the names have been changed to protect the innocent):

Windows cannot find `C:\Document settings\ClientName\Local settings\temporary internet files\Content.1E5\6DLAJZE6\1_30_08 Final Draft of Letter to Respondent.doc.' Make sure you typed the name correctly and try again. To search for a file, click start button, and then click search.

When she then clicks on "File/Save Attachments" and saves the Word document somewhere in My Documents, opens Word, and then tries to open the documents from its new location, it opens fine. It just won't open from inside Outlook Express.

I have tracked down the usual suspects. I have read the Microsoft Knowledte Base article about the use of the "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus." That is NOT checked, so it's not the source of the problem. I've made sure Word can open doc files by clicking on them in Windows Explorer, just to be sure the file extension associated with .doc files is not the source of the trouble. I've uninstalled and reinstalled OE, after copying all the .dbx files to some out of the way place and then putting them back after the reinstallation is finished, but to no avail.

I noticed something interesting that might be the source of the problem. When I ask OE to save the attachment, it shows the current location of the document inside one of the temporary internet file folders. When I looked at the folder in question using Windows Explorer, I noticed that the whole set of temporary internet folders had that day's date as the date of the folder itself. If Windows is generating new temporary internet folders every day, perhaps that's the reason it can't find attachments that are stored inside those folders.

I'm willing to uninstall and reinstall Word 2002 to see if the would solve the problem, but I'm afraid I'll get the same error message above and will have wasted my client's time. Any help would be appreciated.

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Last Answered: Feb 21 2008  5:08 PM GMT  by Buddyfarr




since it works fine when you save it then open in word then I would say word is fine. have you tried doing a repair on outlook express instead of the reinstall? this includes compacting the folders, re-registering OE, re-registering the libraries, etc.

here is a repair kit article:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/oerepair.mspx
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Jirvine  |   Feb 20 2008  2:44PM GMT

If I recall correctly, when you open an attachment from Outlook or Outlook Express it first saves the file as a temporary file in the temp directories, and yes it does create new folders every day. If you try to open it the following day, it just re-saves it to a new directory and re-opens it. I suspect in this case that it’s a permissions issue, not that it can’t actually find the file. You can clear out the temp directory and give that a try. What I have done in the passed with this issue is give the user administrative rights on the local box. This may not work in your situation.

 

KyleFreeman  |   Feb 21 2008  3:24PM GMT

The problem is not that the user doesn’t have administrative rights. She does. Outlook Express used to open Word attachments, but no longer does. Since posting my question, I’ve been back to that client and noticed that Windows Explorer (WE) itself cannot see the Temporary Internet files, even though I set it to show all hidden files and not to hide protected operating system files. In fact, WE couldn’t even see the Content.IE5 subfolder, much less the dozen or so subfolders of that folder that hold all the temporary internet files. The only way I could see them was by using the old DOS command dir /ad at a command line.

One more thing. When I click on the attachment in Outlook Express, Word actually opens up, spins its wheels for a bit, then gives the error message shown in my first message. It says Windows (not, please note, Word, but Windows) simply can’t find the file or folder. But now it seems to me that Windows can’t see these folders in WE either. How did this happen? More importantly, how does one fix it?

 

Pressler2904  |   Feb 21 2008  6:06PM GMT

The directory (folder) you are dealing with is a true hidden folder: Windows Explorer WILL NOT see it (hey, I didn’t design the program…). A similar issue exists with the MS Outlook mail client as well. The issue is usually caused by the hidden directory filling up (there is an arbitrarily determined upper size limit in place (I believe it’s a registry setting, but I’m not entirely sure…)

The solution I have successfully used in the past is to open up a command prompt, CD (ChDir, change directory) to the appropriate location (in the example above, it would be “C:\Document settings\ClientName\Local settings\temporary internet files\Content.1E5\6DLAJZE6\” - using the path given in your original posting…), and delete the entire contents of the directory (”del *.*”). Now I fully realize that this will delete the entire contents: moving the files will work as well. Your client should now be able to see previously opened content from this point onward until the directory again fills up.

Note that in the full Outlook client, the directory name would be “OLK” followed by a series of digits (ie: OLK1234)

 

outlook can t open word attachment  |   Jun 10 2008  10:37PM GMT

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ThatPCDude  |   Aug 25 2008  3:02PM GMT

I tried the above answer without any success and had the same exact problem as described. It appeared to be a rights management issue but the solution that worked was more simple. What I ended up doing is uninstalling and reinstalled Office 2003 and everything worked fine. You might even try the Repair option on Office first. Hope that helps.