Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Problem: cannot open PDF attachments using Outlook 2007 / 2010

Using Outlook 2007 or 2010 you may encounter strange problem:  PDF mail attachment won’t be opened with Acrobat Reader X (we monitored the problem with Outlook 2007 and 2010 using Acrobat Reader X 10.1.1).

While the attachment can be previewed in Outlook mail reader pane:
image

a double click on the same attachment in the same mail brings the Acrobat Reader X Window with error dialog box above saying: “There was an error opening this document. Access denied.”

x10sctmp2

The side effect is: if at least one Acrobat Reader X instance (program window on desktop) is already running, the attachment will be opened properly. Only if there’s no Acrobat Reader X window opened before you try to open a PDF mail attachment from Outlook – the error message appears.

The solution is:

  • open Acrobat Reader X
  • navigate menu Edit->Preferences:
    image
  • uncheck “Enable protected mode at startup”:
    image
  • confirm appearing dialog with “Yes”:
    x10sctmp4
  • close Preferences Dialog with “OK”
  • close Acrobat Reader X
  • retry to open PDF mail attachment
  • …enjoy!

18 comments:

sandeep gaur said...

dear sir i installed nero 2009 in my pc after installation nero my pdf file is open in nero .i can not tech any option openwith

winmike said...

try to repair acrobar reader

Jean said...

Your tip worked! Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

Nice... worked for me. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Nice, worked for me! Thanks

Anonymous said...

Perfect, thx

Skray said...

Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Worked for me too. Thanks Mike!

FTCnet said...

We see the same error with Adobe Reader 11. Looks like the setting has been moved to Preferences, Security (Enhanced), but unchecking Enable Protected Mode at startup and unchecking Enable Enhanced Security doesn't change the "Access Denied" err msg.

winmike said...

@FTSNet: did you change settings starting acrobat with elevated privileges?

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much! This did the trick. ~Deni

Cristin J. said...

Thank you very much!

Anonymous said...

Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!

Lorraine said...

I'm having this problem with not being able to view, save or download PDFs since migrating to Outlook, but I have Adobe 8.1.4.
I tried following your instructions, but those messages are not available.

winmike said...

Lorraine, what exact messages you get if you try to save a PDF attachment

Anonymous said...

Thx, instructions worked brilliantly!

Anonymous said...

Thank you It works but from advanced security setting... You are great.

ESHWARI said...

Delete the temp files and move the outlook pst file to NTFS drive for bigger file benifit

1. Open REGEDIT.EXE and go to Edit -> Find... In the Find dialog box type "OutlookSecureTempFolder" without the quotes and locate that registry key.

2. That key will contain the actual folder location, and will look like:

C:\Documents and Settings\%USER_NAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK#\ (where # is a random letter or number)

3. Copy the location of that folder.

4. Click on Start -> Run... and paste the folder location from step #4 then click OK.

5. Windows Explorer will open that folder. Please, delete all files present.

6. Restart Microsoft Outlook and you should be able to open your attachments.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/996d565f-aebd-49d1-863d-65a2228f8b57/cant-create-file-documentpdf-rightclick-the-folder-you-want-to-create-the-file-in-and-then?forum=exchangesvrclientslegacy