Two Errors in Outlook this week.

In recent weeks I have had two customers contact me about errors when using outlook.

The first was when attempting to click on any link in outlook. The following error message appeared.  The computer was running windows 10 and office 2007.  It did not matter which web browser was set to be the default browser.  Tried Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, all triggered the same error.

I attempted a repair of office software, and this also did not work.  One suggestion was to copy a registry Key from a working computer with the same setup to the computer with the error and import it into the registry.  Since I did not have another computer to do this, this was not an option.  I tried downloading a fix from Microsoft and this also did not work.

Finally, I found someone on Google who has the same issue with the same versions of software.  Their solution was to upgrade to Office 365 software.  So we created a Microsoft Account and purchased the Office 365 Personal Subscription for $129/year.

The first attempt to install Office 365 over the top of office 2007 failed with an error at the last stage of the install.  The second attempt worked. Go Figure!!  Once installed, when we clicked on links in emails, they opened in the default browser.  PROBLEM SOLVED.

Second Issue : Opening attachments in outlook.  Customer received a message similar to this example.

This happens when the temporary folder which outlook uses to store documents has it’s permissions changed to not allow files to be created in the folder.  I cannot say why this happens.  I located the name of the temp folder for outlook 2010 by following these steps.

If you are using Outlook 2010, follow these steps:

1. Click My Computer, and then double-click drive C.
2. On the File menu, click New, and then click Folder.
3. Name the folder temp0.
4. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
5. Locate and then click the following registry key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security\
6. In the right pane, double-click OutlookSecureTempFolder.  Copy this value and paste it in windows explorer.  This will take you to this folder location.

You will need to change the permissions to full access in this folder which might have been set to “READ ONLY” and then you will be able to open attachments again.