Outlook – Red X’s for images

Thu, Jul 16, 2009

Problem:

A user reports a “red X” in the place of all images in an e-mail in Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2003, 2007.

Details:

Much like a web browser, Microsoft Outlook loads images into a temporary store to cache for quicker opening at a later time.  For more details on how the Outlook SecureTemp folder works, click here.

Resolution:

The issue can usually be resolved by clearing all temporary internet files (much the same as one would for Microsoft Internet Explorer).  However, the specific files which will need to be cleared are located in the following directories.

Outlook ²⁰⁰⁰⁄₂₀₀₃

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK*  [The asterisk will usually be a series of numbers]

Outlook 2007

C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook[Any series of characters]

Vista

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files[Content.Outlook or OLK]

There is a simple program called, you guessed it, OutlookTempCleaner which will automatically detect the version of Outlook currently running and the temp folder location.

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