Unable to open word, excel, pdf etc. attachments

  • Thread starter Thread starter juliakill
  • Start date Start date
J

juliakill

Hi, I am unable to to open any office apps or pdf. I get the error 'file can
not be found'.

I never used to have this problem. The only thing I have changed is
downloading Internet Explorer 8 - would this effect windows mail?

Thanks
 
juliakill said:
Hi, I am unable to to open any office apps or pdf. I get the error 'file
can
not be found'.

I never used to have this problem. The only thing I have changed is
downloading Internet Explorer 8 - would this effect windows mail?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Go to default programs, either from the start menu or in Control
Panel>Set your default programs>wait for the list of programs to
populate>select Windows Mail and ensure that it is set as default.

Select Internet Explorer and do the same.

Also while in the Default Programs, click on "Set program
access and computer defaults." Select Custom, and
then select Internet Explorer. Then Windows Mail & Click OK.

HTH?
 
mac said:
Go to default programs, either from the start menu or in Control
Panel>Set your default programs>wait for the list of programs to
populate>select Windows Mail and ensure that it is set as default.

Select Internet Explorer and do the same.

Also while in the Default Programs, click on "Set program
access and computer defaults." Select Custom, and
then select Internet Explorer. Then Windows Mail & Click OK.
Click to expand...

This recipe does not help on both my computers (running under Business
32 SP2).

I assume that the problem might be the place where temporary files are
stored prior to be opened by the associated app.

I had a similar problem in the past (on a different computer) which had
been caused by fumbling around with the %TEMP% directory. By re-creating
the "\low" subdirectory and setting the attributes with ICACLS this was
cured.
It's not that now. I checked with ICACLS and everything is fine.

What makes me think of a problem with the storage place is the fact that
on trying to open an attachment (DIC, HTML, PPT) with OE-Quotefix
activated, an ErrorMsg appears telling that the file could not be found
in the program directory of OE-Quotefix (really the last place where a
temporary file from an attachement should be stored <!!>).
When WinMail was started without OE-Quotefix, however, the said
file-types open fine.
Some types cannot be opened at all, f.e. JPG for which only a plain
ErrorMsg appears without mentioning the location of the file.

PDF-files open fine under both variations if the file association is set
to PDF-Annotator. They do not open at all when the association is set
for Acrobat or the Adobe Reader (but this might have to do with the
known Adobe problem).

I would very much appreciate it, could you check things a bit deeper.
The more as today another user opened a thread in the German MS Vista-NG
today (it was him to direct me to this thread).

TIA
Rainald
 
This recipe does not help on both my computers (running under Business
32 SP2).

I assume that the problem might be the place where temporary files are
stored prior to be opened by the associated app.

I had a similar problem in the past (on a different computer) which had
been caused by fumbling around with the %TEMP% directory. By re-creating
the "\low" subdirectory and setting the attributes with ICACLS this was
cured.
It's not that now. I checked with ICACLS and everything is fine.

What makes me think of a problem with the storage place is the fact that
on trying to open an attachment (DIC, HTML, PPT) with OE-Quotefix
activated, an ErrorMsg appears telling that the file could not be found
in the program directory of OE-Quotefix (really the last place where a
temporary file from an attachement should be stored <!!>).
When WinMail was started without OE-Quotefix, however, the said
file-types open fine.
Some types cannot be opened at all, f.e. JPG for which only a plain
ErrorMsg appears without mentioning the location of the file.

PDF-files open fine under both variations if the file association is set
to PDF-Annotator. They do not open at all when the association is set
for Acrobat or the Adobe Reader (but this might have to do with the
known Adobe problem).

I would very much appreciate it, could you check things a bit deeper.
The more as today another user opened a thread in the German MS Vista-NG
today (it was him to direct me to this thread).

TIA
Rainald
Click to expand...

The second part of my post, when activated should rewrite the registry
entries of the default program, and its actions.

See if the tools and/or info, here help you at all, (please ignore the
Google ad's).

http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/File-association-fixes-for-Windows-Vista.html

http://www.winhelponline.com/categories/Windows-Vista/Windows-Mail/
 
I could dove the problem meanwhile on my own. Pls see below.
The second part of my post, when activated should rewrite the registry
entries of the default program, and its actions.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.
As said before setting the standards for WinMail and IE did not help.
See if the tools and/or info, here help you at all, (please ignore the
Google ad's).

http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/File-association-fixes-for-Windows-Vista.html

http://www.winhelponline.com/categories/Windows-Vista/Windows-Mail/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the references.
I had the first in one stored in my OneNote notebooks on Vista problems
<g>, in the second collection I did not detect anything as new as the
obvious problems discussed here and in some other threads, f.e.:
"The Command failed to execute"
starting Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:41:00 -0700,
MID: (e-mail address removed) .

As I had assumed it was a problem with the storage place for the
temporary files used for opening attachments.
Deleting the file
"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5"
cured the problems.
Obviously this file, where IE8 and - as I had to find out the hard way -
WinMail too, was damaged someway.
Therefore WinMail could not place the needed temporary files there.
Instead for some file-types they were put in the root of %USERPROFILE%.
For some (like JPG) they could not be created at all. When WinMail was
started with OE-Quotefix (OELauncher) the files were placed in an
automatically created subdirectory of
"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Virtualized".

It's a mystery how the said file got kaputt. The more why this happened
on two of my machines and only for my personal user-profiles there (no
problem with other "dummy"-users on these machines).

Thanks again for trying to help.
Perhaps my report might help others in future cases.

Regards
Rainald
 
Do you Vista or XP? Default Programs comes with Vista.
If you don't have Vista, you don't have Windows Mail, which
is the only email program supported in this newsgroup.

For help with the Hotmail email service, go to
http://windowslivehelp.com
 
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