Outlook 2007 Cannot Create File Error

I had a user complain that they could not open attachments via Outlook anymore. The system they are using is a Windows XP Pro SP3 system with Office 2007 installed. Their workaround was to save the document to their My Documents folder (or desktop) and then open that way. I wonder why they complained…

Here’s the exact error:
Cannot create file: (filename). Right-click the folder you want to create the file in, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder.
unabletoopenfolders

Here’s the fix:

Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\
You’ll find a randomly name generated folder in here. In my case it’s MI2MU5YB. Open this folder.
You’ll now find a bunch of files – all of which you’ve opened as attachments before.
Select All
Delete
Retry to open your attachment

***EDIT*** 03.08.2011
I just had a user with this error: Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error. The same fix above applies in this case. User on XP, office 2007.

And the location on Vista/7 for temporary internet files:
c:\users\YOURUSER\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\

AND you can just open up Internet Explorer, go to Tools / Internet Options
Then click the Delete… button. I generally only select Preserve Favorites Website Data and Temporary Internet Files. But that’s just me.

Windows System Variables

In creating a software restriction policy, I had to refresh on some of the Windows System Environment Variables. Google helped me find a site (http://www.wilsonmar.com/1envvars.htm) that listed quite a bit of useful information.

%SystemDrive% C:

%SystemRoot% C:\WINNT
C:\WINDOWS

%WinDir% C:\WINNT
C:\WINDOWS

%SystemDirectory% C:\WINNT\System32
C:\WINDOWS\System32

%ComSpec% C:\WINNT\system32\cmd.exe

%programfiles% C:\WINNT\Program Files

%Temp% C:\DOCUME~1\Usr\LOCALS~1\Temp from
C:\Documents and Settings\Usr\Local Settings\Temp
%Tmp%

%HOMEDRIVE% C: The drive letter associated with the user’s home directory

%HOMEPATH% The path to the user’s home directory (excluding drive):
\Documents and Settings\Guest

%OS% Windows_NT (even on Windows XP machines
The operating system the user is running

%USERDOMAIN% The name of the domain that contains the user’s account

%USERNAME% The user’s name

%USERPROFILE%

%USERPROFILE%\Desktop The user’s desktop folder

Cisco Unified Messaging 7 Voicemail Alerts

We recently upgraded to CUM 7 from Unity 4. Big difference.

In doing so, we also get our voicemails sent to our Exchange 2007 inbox as well as having the red light show up on our IP Phones. I recently, for the first time in about 6 weeks, rebooted our primary Exchange server. Unity did not like this, and all voicemail alerts (the red light) failed to work.

The fix for this is:
RDP to the UM server as a Unity Administrator – make sure you don’t allow sounds to go back and forth over the RDP connection as this would make all voicemails fail.
Start, All Programs, Unity, Manage Integrations
If you get an alert that the services cannot be found, then you are probably not logged in as a Unity Admin (or the services really are off, in which case you would have a much larger problem)
Now navigate down to the Properties of your CUCM/CCM server.
In the lower right corner there should be a MWI Resynchronize Now button. Press this button.

Depending on the size of your organization this could take up to a couple minutes.

VLite, Windows Activation, SLUI.exe, and SCARDDLG.DLL

Fun times.

I vlited Vista a while back when SP1 was released. I cropped almost 3GB worth of Vista DVD into 900MB worth of awesome install. It fit on two CDs. I liked it.

Fast forward to today – SP2 for vista was released a couple days ago to MSDN/partners. I download the rather large install and attempt to update my system. Fail. Epic. Apparently I’m “missing” key components needed by the SP2 installer. So I’m stuck on 1. Yippie.

So I go ahead and download the whole schebang – Vista Enterprise SP2. Then I go ahead and vlite this installation – but I only manage to cut the installer in half – 1.58GB out of the original 2.98GB. Four CD’s later I’m in business; burned and ready to install.

Installed without any issues, and it’s not even complaining. Seems faster already too.

ANYway, I attempt to run the Activation for windows. ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!

slui.exe – System Error

The program can’t start because SCARDDLG.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem

Well that sucks. How am I supposed to activate this beast? I check on the original DVD to see if the dll is floating around – no dice. I check on another vista machine (SP1) – no dice. So then I remember that post CAB file days, Microsoft has files known as WIMs. AND since I needed to install that 1.3GB AIK microsoft installer for vlite to run, I already had the tool required to view said WIM files.

Grab the original Vista SP2 Disk and put it in your Optical drive (Or Daemon Tools virtual mount the ISO)
Create a directory called “vistamount” on your C:\ drive
Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Windows AIK -> Windows PE Tools Command Prompt

imagex /mount f:\sources\install.wim 1 c:\vistamount

Now you’ll be able to navigate to c:\vistamount\windows\system32\scarddlg.dll. Throw this file into c:\windows\system32 and then try to reactivate.

sdra64.exe

I was recently given a laptop that refused to cooperate with the end user. Safemode only worked half the time, and regular boots would just hang after attempting to login.

The computer ended up having a windows init known as sdra64.exe. I don’t even care what these programs do anymore – I just get rid of them.

Quick google search provided me with this guy’s blog:
http://mrmusicmaker.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-remove-sdra64exe-yourself-for.html
Although I’m going to provide a different way to fix this issue, a lot of the knowledge was gained from the above blog about this problem and how to fix it.

First, grab your handy IT-Fix-It Disc (Hirens).
Boot off the hirens disc – I’m using version 9.8, current at the time of this writing
Boot into Tiny/Mini XP
After XP loads, open My Computer and navigate to C:\windows\system32\
Find the file sdra64.exe and either delete or rename this file. I renamed just in case I really wanted to go back to the way it was.
Then reboot back into safe mode (F8 before Windows starts loading).

When in safe mode, open the registry Start
Run
Regedit
Navigate to
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\winlogon
Find the “userinit” key
Double click on this key
You should only have the following:
C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe,
So delete anything after that comma.

Reboot once again, but this time don’t go into safe mode. You probably will have other infections that you should remove using Malwarebytes or Eset’s Nod32. Combination attacks work the best.

Exchange 2007 Full Mailbox Rights

In case you haven’t noticed, Microsoft took a giant leap backwards from their AD management of Exchange. It’s now back to the way it was Pre-2000 (5.5 anyone?) instead of 2000/2003 ish. One of the nice things about 07 is that they gave us a command line interface that is actually pretty nice (once you get the hang of how it all works).
This is how to setup a user with full mailbox rights – you can also choose other options instead of FullAccess.
This also assumes that you know the login/mailbox of the user you want to give permissions to as well as the user you want to take the permissions from.

Open up the Exchange Management Tools
Add-MailboxPermission OF_USER -User TO_USER -AccessRights FullAccess

So in my case it was:
Add-MailboxPermission computeruser -User computeradmin -AccessRights FullAccess
Which gave the computeradmin full access to use the computeruser’s mailbox.

3 Three Tres Drei

I just realized that I’ve been posting for Three years running. That’s a long time.

And I’m only sure that a couple of these posts were really helpful – but they probably all helped me at one time or another.

Anywho, Just thought I’d point out the 3 year anniversary. To me. Yippie!

Ramblings Of An IT Person