OL2003 - Temp Files - and cleanup.

[JeffG]

Office Outlook 2003 (SP1), Exchange 2003 (SP1), upgraded some time ago
from Office 97. We are not using Word as the email editor, FYI.

One of the things mentioned and discussed in this group is the
location of temporary files and saved documents when an attachment is
opened within Outlook. These files, when opened by a double-click in
Oulook, are opened and saved to a seemingly randomly-named subfolder
in the "Temporary Internet Files" subset of the Local Settings folder
in the users' local profile. This much we know, from users losing
saved documents (by not noticing where they saved it and not having
access to browse to the folder if they do notice it) or from our own
observations when we click "Save".

Now it's also obvious from some testing that Outlook keeps these
temporary files even after emptying the Temporary Internet files from
the IE mechanisms, as a matter of fact, I don't see that IE even knows
they are there.

I've got three questions about this operation, and I'll post them
mostly seperately so as not to confuse myself if the group cares to
answer:

Question 1 and 2:

Does Outlook EVER clean up these files on it's own?

How do end users clean them up manually if needed?

You can imagine if I've got, say 10 profiles with one shared machine
(I do) that each get 10 Excel spreadsheets daily to peruse and maybe
change/remail (they do) that my poor machine can quite quickly end up
with a BUNCH of files in all of these temp folders for each profile!

Answers, pointers, documentations, even rude comments welcome.

"What's with all these damned questions?"
JeffG

 

[Brian Tillman]

Does Outlook EVER clean up these files on it's own?

It's supposed to, but there's a Knowledgebase article stating that Outlook
2003 can't do that sometimes. See http://support.microsoft.com/?id=817878.

How do end users clean them up manually if needed?

Open a command line window and enter:

cd %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
dir /a

You'll see a folder whose name starts with OLK. Delete that folder:

rmdir /q /s OLKxxx

You can imagine if I've got, say 10 profiles with one shared machine
(I do) that each get 10 Excel spreadsheets daily to peruse and maybe
change/remail (they do) that my poor machine can quite quickly end up
with a BUNCH of files in all of these temp folders for each profile!

If the file is closed when Outlook is closed, the files should be deleted.

 

[JeffG]

It's supposed to, but there's a Knowledgebase article stating that Outlook
2003 can't do that sometimes. See http://support.microsoft.com/?id=817878.

Sometimes ;-) Thanks for that link! Now if I could just come up with
an easy way to find out how many of my end users are in that
"sometimes" category - which is probably a HUGE variable, since
apparently it all depends on whether an attachment was open when
Outlook was closed...

Open a command line window and enter:

cd %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
dir /a

You'll see a folder whose name starts with OLK. Delete that folder:

rmdir /q /s OLKxxx

Cool, I'll come up with some kind of batch file to distribute to
whichever of my users are the worst offenders once I identify them.

Or I might not do anything about it at all, until disk-space alerts
start going off on my people...

If the file is closed when Outlook is closed, the files should be deleted.

Agreed - emphasis on the "should" - just like I "should" close the
files before I close Outlook! LOL

Thanks again Brian!
J