[ITTF Museum]

Sudden and strange Outlook behavior when I attempt to open any e-mail attachment (.jpg, .doc ... regardless of file extension): the system32 folder contents (icons) are instead displayed.

I wondered if this might be security related, but no luck so far in the security forum, and it was suggested I post it in this forum.

Hope someone can help!

Charles

[mobo]

What operating system please ?

[ITTF Museum]

Thanks for looking in.

Windows XP operating system, Outlook

When I click on an e-mail with an attachment in my Inbox, I get an error msg: Can't open one or more files. Then it shows me the e-mail without attachment icons.

When I click on the paperclip symbol in the preview pane, it lists the attachments, and when I click on the attachment name, it asks, Open or save to disk.

Open displays the system32 folder !???
Save to disk yields an error msg, advising checking the folder for proper permissions (but I haven't selected a destination yet).

I really come up with the odd ones ... Charles

[mobo]

Lets first check the attachment setting:
1. Start Outlook Express.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click the Security tab, click to clear the Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus check box under Virus Protection, and then click OK.



Then download this zip file http://www.techsupersite.com/downloa...etxp_assoc.zip
Unzip it, then run the batch file to reset the file associations.

Then reboot once again.

[ITTF Museum]

Hello mobo,

Thanks for your reply.

I had already done the Tools>Options>Security step, but no luck.

Now I downloaded, unzipped and ran the reset program and rebooted, but no success.

From the paperclip in the preview pane, when I click on, for example, a .pdf filename, it is supposed to activate Adobe Acrobat, but instead displays the contents of system32 folder. What kind of program could so something like that??

Charles

[ITTF Museum]

Mobo:

After running that resetxp_assoc program, it changed all my WORD .doc files to Wordpad !?

How do I fix this?

Charles

[mobo]

Open the control panel / folder options / file types / scroll down the list to doc / highlight it and click change then set office as the default programto open that particular extension.

[JayUK]

Hiya,

I'll explain why this happen's before giving you the resolve:
When you open an attachment in Outlook, it will save it to a temporary location, and most of the time, will not delete it after you close it.

If yesterday you opened an attachment called MyDoc.doc, it will save this file MyDoc.doc in the temp location, then the next day you get another email with attachment with the same name (MyDoc.doc). Because this already exists, Outlook will save it in the temp folder as MyDoc1.doc.

You will get the problems you are experiencing when you reach MyDoc99.doc.

So all you need to do, is clear out this temp folder. To Do this;

Browse to your profile area (Windows NT = C:\winnt\profiles\username ::: Windows 2K & XP = C:\documents and settings\username) and go into Local Settings folder, and Temporary Internet Files. (to be able to see these folder, you may have to enable Hidden Folders in Folder Options within Windows Explorer). There should be a folder withing there called something like OLKxxx (depending on your outlook version, xxx will be a number). Within there is the temp storage for attachments in outlook. Delete these files and your problem should go away.

[ITTF Museum]

Hello JayUK,

Thanks for your post. First I did a major purge of old messages from my Inbox and Sent box, which each had over 3000 messages - is there a limit allowed by Outlook? Then I deleted those temp files and sure enough Outlook went back to normal. But I did not know why until your clear explanation. I find such dirty little secrets appalling and have to wonder why Microsoft allows this to happen - I lost a lot of work time during that problem. Now I have installed Mozilla Thunderbird as a back-up e-mail handler.

Charles

[JayUK]

Hi Again,

Yeah when I first saw this problem It took me a good couple of hours to find out the reason why it was happening. I did not get much help from Microsoft website and couldn't find much on it searching the internet.

There isn't any limits on Messages in Outlook client as far as I know, these limits will be set by your Exchange server, or ISP SMTP mail server, so dont worry too much about that.

Glad you got it resolved.

[sekirt]

I don't use Outlook but with Outlook Express long time storage of emails in the Inbox is asking for real problems. IMO, it is always a better practice to make custom folders and store emails in those.

sekirt

[estrelaa]

I am using windows XP outlook 2000 and only under the one windows profile when I try to open a PDF attachment it opens the system 32 folder, file type is correct in the folder options and I get an error if I try to save it or copy it my computer. Can someone please help!!!

[JayUK]

Hi estrelaa,

Have you tried my solution detailed in previous post above dated 14-Oct-2005 11:01 AM?

Give that a go and let me know if you're still having problems.

[estrelaa]

Thanks alot it worked.