Where is the Temporary Outlook folder?

An unusual issue developed yesterday. A user mentioned that they could not open a PDF file from Outlook. Other PDF files would open, but just not ones that were called ESale.PDF. The message in Outlook was “Can’t create file: ESale.PDF. Right click on the folder you want to create the file in, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder.”
 
A quick check indicated that since the user opened files by this name quite often, it was likely that the Outlook Temp folder had reached the maximum number of stored files with this name. Apparently, Outlook creates temp files in this folder called ESale.PDF, then ESale(2).PDF, ESale(3).PDF and so on until Esale(99).PDF. After that, the error occurs.
 
To find out where the Outlook Temp folder resides, one can look in the following registry entries, depending on the version of Outlook.
 
Outlook 97 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 98 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.5\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2000 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2002/XP – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2003 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2007 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security
 
Copy and paste that location into Explorer, and you will then be able to view the contents of the folder and clear out un-needed files. This is also particularly useful for people who may have opened and attachment, made changes to the attachment, and inadvertently clicked Save and Exit. The file is then saved in this temporary folder, and hidden from the user.

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