Outlook & Attachments

[JDanker]

I have two computers.

Computer 1:
Operating System - Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3.
Outlook - Outlook 2003, Service Pack 3.
PowerPoint - PowerPoint 2003 (full install).
Office 2007 Compatability Pack - version 12.0.6425.1000, Service Pack 2
with Security Updates:
KB969618,
KB969679, KB969613 and 972581

Computer 2:
Operating System - Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3 (same
security updates as Computer
1).
Outlook - Outlook 2003, Service Pack 3 (same
security updates as Computer
1).
PowerPoint - PowerPoint Viewer 2007.
Office 2007 Compatability Pack - version 12.0.6021.5000 with security
update KB951944.

When receiving email with attachments (photos/images, .pps, etc), Computer 1
functions "properly', Computer 2 does not. Using .pps as the example, on
Computer 1, when I click the attachment, it opens the slideshow with
PowerPoint. On Computer 2, I expect the attachment to open with PowerPoint
Viewer; instead when I click the attachment, I get a dialog asking if I want
to open, save or cancel - I don't have a problem having this dialog appear,
if it would do what I ask when I select an option - when I click open,
instead of opening, it comes up with the Save dialog with the "save as"
options being "Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Macro-Enabled (*.ppsm)" or
"Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Show (*.ppsx).

I have checked the registry on both computers for
Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook under both HKey_Current_User and
HKey_Local_Machine and they are the same. I have added Level1Remove to the
Security key under HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook
and added .pps - this completely removed the "open" option (deleted this
setting after testing).

Can anyone advise if the differences in the PowerPoint and Compatability
Pack versions may be the cause of this problem and/or provide any information
as to what I can change on Computer 2 to allow the attachments to open when
clicked on?

 

[VanguardLH]

Using .pps as the example, when I click the attachment, I expect the
attachment to open with PowerPoint Viewer; instead when I click the
attachment, I get a dialog asking if I want to open, save or cancel

when I click open, instead of opening, it comes up with the Save
dialog with the "save as" options being "Microsoft Office PowerPoint
2007 Macro-Enabled (*.ppsm)" or "Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
Show (*.ppsx).

On the problematic computer, what handler is associated to the .pps
filetype?

In a command shell, run:

assoc .pps

What gets returned? I have Office 2003 installed on my host, so I
don't know what program ID gets listed if the PowerPoint Viewer is
used.

When you save the file (and rename its extension to .pps), does it load
okay in the PowerPoint Viewer?

When you open an attachment, it has to get saved somewhere. Attachments
are inside the body of the e-mail and encoded into a long text string
(all e-mail gets sent as text characters). To view or save the
attachment requires decoding that encoded text string. That means the
decoded output has to be saved somewhere, so it gets put into a file.
It may be a temporary file but it is still a file that then the handler
(PowerPoint Viewer, in this case) will open. Outlook saves its
temporary files in an OLK folder (which is not visible in Windows
Explorer because it is a special folder used to secure the temporary
openings of attachments).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817878 shows you how to find where is
the OLK* folder used by Outlook. You can look in the registry key to
figure out what is the random appended string used the first time you
open an attachment from within Outlook. In the registry key path, 10.0
is for OL2002, 11.0 is for OL2003, and 12.0 is for OL2007. Although
Windows Explorer won't show the folder, you can then enter the full path
to that folder to move into it using Windows Explorer. Then delete all
the files there. The article mentions why files might remain in that
folder (they are normally deleted when the file is closed).

Have a read here: http://www.slipstick.com/OUTLOOK/securetemp.htm

Apparently there is a max size to the contents of this folder since I've
seen mention of it getting "full" which necessitates emptying it out.