Outlook 2003 OLK** folders hidden. Want to view with Windows Explorer

Greetings, Frankco !

OLK** folder is really hidden. It is a secure temp folder. So you cannot just unhide it.  There is no way to view with Windows Explorer.

You can go to Start > Run and type outlook.exe /l olkfilename
to view the file.

Here is another way to view the Secure Temp folder
http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2003/20030828.htm

Best wishes!

Frankco,

You may want to unhide hidden system files. Go to any folder and select Tools > Folders Options > View. Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files".  Click OK.  Now can you view it with Windows Explorer.

Thanks All,

AndreDekolta,

Good, sound advice. But, when you have 400 Outlook users, someone is going to save there file in the hidden folder. I just wanted a way to change the settings for the users so they would be able to navigate there and retrieve the file. Since I did find that you can copy the whole Temporary Internet folder to the desktop and retreive the file, I can have them do that in an emergency.


war1,

Yes, I was looking at that site earlier. This would allow me to change the location of the Outlook temp folder, which isn't a bad idea.
Unchecking Hide protected operating system files will not work for this folder. Give it a try.

I'm sure there is a hidden registry entry that will allow me to view that folder. Any ideas as to where it is?

frankco

>> I'm sure there is a hidden registry entry that will allow me to view that folder. Any ideas as to where it is?

I am unaware of such a registry setting.

I think the registry key you are looknig for is:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\xx\Outlook\Security\OutlookSecureTempFolder
where xx is the "office version" of Outlook running.

So Outlook 2003 should be:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security\OutlookSecureTempFolder

You can try this from a command prompt:
reg.exe query hkcu\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security /v OutlookSecureTempFolder

I don't think that registry key gets created until the user opens an attachemnt from within Outlook.  If you want an easy way for the user to open that folder, you can paste this into a batch file (tested in just Outlook 2003), and it should open the folder (as long as the registry value exists) without modifying the hidden folder values or anything else:

@echo off
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('reg.exe query hkcu\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security /v OutlookSecureTempFolder ^|findstr REG_SZ') do set olk=%%a&explorer.exe /root,"%olk:~35%"

Hi GuruGary,

Very cool.

I tested this on my computer since I have opened an attachment and do have the registry setting. The batch file goes to the root of C: in explorer. Not sure why. I would really love to have this work. Any ideas?

Thank you,
frankco

Here is my registery value for OutlookSecureTempFolder.

C:\Documents and Settings\Tromblef\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK1C8\

Thanks again.

If you have never opened an attachment, the registry value is never created.  The batch file is just one line, but could easily be modified to give a message, or not open Explorer (or whatever you want) if the registry value doesn't exist.  Right now it attempts to open Explorer in the folder of the registry value ... which if there is none, I guess it defaults to C:\.

Oops ... I need to read more carefully.  Re-reading your post, I see that you HAVE opened an attachment.  I'm not sure why it's not working, but try this instead:

for /f "tokens=3 delims=      " %%a in ('reg.exe query hkcu\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security /v OutlookSecureTempFolder ^|findstr REG_SZ') do set olk=%%a&explorer.exe /root,"%olk%"

I'm not sure if the [Tab] is going to come over in the paste, but after the word "delims", there should be just an equal sign, followed by a [Tab], then a double-quote mark.

If that doesn't work let me know.

Hi GuruGary,

The new one took me to the root of c: also.

I changed the line to this and it worked. Look at the very last part. Dose this look right to you?

@echo off
for /f "tokens=3 delims=      " %%a in ('reg.exe query hkcu\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security /v OutlookSecureTempFolder ^|findstr REG_SZ') do  set olk=%%a&explorer.exe /root,%%a"

Thank you,
frankco

Thanks GuruGary.

This is what I was looking for. I can send someone the bat file and they can retreive the file they have been working on for hours and saved to the hidden folder.

You get the points. Thank you so much!

No problem.  Thanks for the points!

To view the securetemp folder, at Start menu, run, type

%temp%

and expand the Temporary Internet Folders branch to show the OLK* folder(s) in the Folder list (left side of screen). Click the Folders  button in the Explorer toolbar (or View, Explorer Bar, Folders) if the folder list is not shown.

I stumbled across another way to view/delete files in the OLK folder.
If you have administrative rights on the computer, type:  \\computername\C$ (admin share) from RUN or Windows Explorer address bar.  Browse to the \Local Settings folder and you'll see the Temporary Internet Files folder with OLK folder(s) inside.

The %temp% solution didn't work for me but "C$" did.