Changing Built-in Windows Zip default Decompression Path - Outlook Attachments
Our CEO is adamant about always having the same default path for any "save as" dialog box and wants this to be a network share that is a mapped drive for him.
I've been able to get this to work with everything except when he gets an email in Outlook that is a compressed Excel sheet. No matter what, it temporarily decompresses the file to
C:\users\myusername\AppDat
This is in Windows 7.
He's expecting to be able to just double click the attachment, which opens up the file with Windows Explorer in the above path, then double click the Excel sheet, and now from within excel, click save as, and have it default to his network drive (this is setup as the default save path for Excel). Instead it goes to try to save the file to a new folder for the zip file under:
C:\Users\myusername\AppDat
I cannot find in the registry on any forums where to control this behavior, or whether doing so will affect the temporary save location for Windows Explorer in general.
I had another idea of trying to use different software, like WinRAR, that would let me change this location, which it does seem to work, however, it also creates its own temp folder in this path that it decompresses to, like Rar$DI00.717
Which is close, but no cigar. I'm not opposed at all to using or purchasing any third party software, just need it save the excel sheet at the root level of the network drive, without adding any cryptic temp folder or renaming the file.
All in all, if anybody has an idea how to accomplish the above objective, where no matter what, a zipped Excel sheet opened as an attachment in Outlook will actually use or obey the default save location setup in Excel, rather than some other temp location, please let me know.
Thanks,
-e
I've been able to get this to work with everything except when he gets an email in Outlook that is a compressed Excel sheet. No matter what, it temporarily decompresses the file to
C:\users\myusername\AppDat
This is in Windows 7.
He's expecting to be able to just double click the attachment, which opens up the file with Windows Explorer in the above path, then double click the Excel sheet, and now from within excel, click save as, and have it default to his network drive (this is setup as the default save path for Excel). Instead it goes to try to save the file to a new folder for the zip file under:
C:\Users\myusername\AppDat
I cannot find in the registry on any forums where to control this behavior, or whether doing so will affect the temporary save location for Windows Explorer in general.
I had another idea of trying to use different software, like WinRAR, that would let me change this location, which it does seem to work, however, it also creates its own temp folder in this path that it decompresses to, like Rar$DI00.717
Which is close, but no cigar. I'm not opposed at all to using or purchasing any third party software, just need it save the excel sheet at the root level of the network drive, without adding any cryptic temp folder or renaming the file.
All in all, if anybody has an idea how to accomplish the above objective, where no matter what, a zipped Excel sheet opened as an attachment in Outlook will actually use or obey the default save location setup in Excel, rather than some other temp location, please let me know.
Thanks,
-e
ASKER
Yes, I did go through the registry looking for "zip" and was unable to find anything that specified a default save or temp location. I'll look into posting this in a MSDN forum.
I figured that on the Temp env. variable, but fear changing that to his network share could cause other issues.
I figured that on the Temp env. variable, but fear changing that to his network share could cause other issues.
Outlook attachments unzip to the content.outlook folder, because that's the SecureTemp folder where attachments are stored when they are accessed. Default behaviour is to unzip to its own directory...
Ill have a look shortly, but I don't think this can be changed...
Ill have a look shortly, but I don't think this can be changed...
"and now from within excel, click save as, and have it default to his network drive (this is setup as the default save path for Excel)"
Default Save As path should be working normally for you with a NEW document... Can you confirm this?
Any EXISTING document, as I would understand, would prompt the CURRENT WORKING directory when doing a Save As.....
I don't have a solution, was more or less trying to explain why it is behaving this way....
Default Save As path should be working normally for you with a NEW document... Can you confirm this?
Any EXISTING document, as I would understand, would prompt the CURRENT WORKING directory when doing a Save As.....
I don't have a solution, was more or less trying to explain why it is behaving this way....
ASKER
Yes, the default save path is working in Excel with a new doc, and I had to come up with another work around for an excel doc sent in an attachment(not zipped) by adjusting the default save path for the documents library in explorer.
I understand the behavior, but was looking if there is a way to change the temp file location for unzipping solely the excel attachment from outlook without having to change Temp env variable.
I understand the behavior, but was looking if there is a way to change the temp file location for unzipping solely the excel attachment from outlook without having to change Temp env variable.
Can maybe change the location of the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Softwar
ASKER
That got the zip file in the attachment to download to the correct location, but once the archive is opened, it is opened in the path for the TEMP env. variable, e.g. C:\users\username\AppData\
Temp\
Temp\
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Yes, I found WinZip to come as close as possible to providing a one click decompress to the network drive, then allowing one to make edits to the excel doc and either save them back into to the Archive at the specified location, or create a subfolder in the network drive a little less cryptic than WinRar for him ( actually found another way to have it decompress to a folder in the network share with the same name as the zip file)
As far as I can tell from your advice and other research, changing the temp file location solely for the built-in windows folder compression/ zip utility is not possible, unless you are changing the system temp variable.
As far as I can tell from your advice and other research, changing the temp file location solely for the built-in windows folder compression/ zip utility is not possible, unless you are changing the system temp variable.
e.g from the command prompt regedit
and look for any references of zip in a case
insensitive fashion.
That is probably the first thing you should try. If that does not work
You could post a question in Microsoft;s MSDN forums under Outlook and Exchange Server.
You may want to also check out the TEMP environment variable in case it is used in the process
e.g echo %TEMP% its usually something like:
C:\Users\john smith\AppData\Local\Temp
Often zip programs store works in progress in the %TEMP% folder
I hope that helps: