Fixing Broken Image Links in Outlook

If Outlook stops displaying images embedded in HTML e-mail, the fix is to delete files in its temporary file folder. On my WinXP computer, that temporary folder is: C:\Documents and Settings\<user>>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK<random>.

To find the location of Outlook's temporary folder on your PC, open an e-mail message with a Word or Excel attachment, open the attachment and save it. The default location displayed in the application's Save dialog is the location of the temporary folder. This technique works for Word or Excel but other applications may instead show the last folder you used.

For the motivated, the temporary folder's path is stored in the registry in this key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\<Office version>\Outlook\Security\OutlookSecureTempFolder.

Notes:

• You can't see that folder using Windows Explorer by browsing the parent folder, C:\Documents and Settings\<user>>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files. Instead, to see the contnts of the folder, you have to type in its path in the Explorer's address bar.
• If you use a CMD console, you can list that folder using the dir command.
• If you make a shortcut to that folder and try to use the shortcut, Windows shows this warning: This page has an unspecified potential security risk..

See Also

• Attachments remain in the Outlook Secure Temporary File folder when you exit Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007

Invisible USB Drive

If you plug in a USB drive and Windows doesn't assign a letter to it, you can assign a letter yourself using the Disk Management console:

1. Run diskmgmt.msc
2. In Disk Management window, locate the box corresponding to your USB drive.
3. Select context menu item Change Drive Letter and Paths....
4. Assign a letter to your drive.

This problem happened after I had mapped a remote drive to Z: then plugged in a USB key. I could see the USB key and eject it in the Windows Start Bar but no letter was assigned to it.

See Also

• Assign USB Drives to Folder
• USB Flash Drive is invisible

Vim Delete Lines With Regex

To use vim to delete all lines that have a specific string: :g/s1/d. To delete all lines that don't have a specific string, add an exclamation mark before the string: :g!/s1/d. If there are alternative strings to match (logical OR), insert an escaped vertical bar, e.g. :g/s1\|s2/d.