How do you remove temporary folders and files on your PC? We have the answer!

If you receive, say for example a regular attachment you receive a lot with the same name, and then you are likely to run in to this problem. Outlook uses a temporary folder to save the attachment when you tell it you want to open it. If the file name already exists then it will add a number to the end, which will increment each time you open the same file name. These temporary files are not deleted automatically; however there is a limit of 100 files. So when you try to open an outlook attachment with the same exact file name for the 101st time you will receive an error that states that outlook is unable to create that file. Even a complete uninstall/reinstall of office will not resolve this issue (unless you uninstall with a third party application like Revo Uninstaller that removes all traces of an application).

The easiest way to find out where your files are located is to look at a registry key:

Outlook 97: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\Security

Outlook 98: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.5\Outlook\Security

Outlook 2000: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security

Outlook 2002/XP: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security

Outlook 2003: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security

Outlook 2007: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security

Outlook 2010: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security

(The directory name will always start with OLK.)

I hope this bit of information proves useful!

Written By: ‘Grandpa Grumps’ @ Halski Systems in Gainesville, GA