Default Location when Saving Attachments in Outlook 2010
If you're an Outlook 2010 user, you've probably noticed that when you save an attachment, it brings up some default file location. Then you have to click through to navigate to the folder where you like to save your files. This was really getting me down and I figured it was one of those small issues that had a solution, so today I finally decided to investigate.
What I found is this KB article entitled How to change the folder where e-mail messages and attachments are saved in Outlook 2003 and in Outlook 2007. The article explains how to add a registry entry so that when you save an attachment, the Save Attachment dialog opens to the default location that you specify. In spite of the title, the process does work with Outlook 2010.
This tip could save you a few seconds each time you save an attachment. I feel my productivity soaring already.
Comments
Anonymous
October 12, 2010
While the information here is most appreciated, it beggars belief that more than a decade after Outlook 98, editing the registry is the only method. Surely not. I'm off to keep searching. And I noticed while Word 2010 lets one browse to the default save location, Excel 2010 has no browse button. I last cursed the Excel team for that in 2004 when installing Office 2003 around our company. Sigh.Anonymous
December 14, 2010
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April 12, 2011
You are a genius nobrainer100! I wasn’t excited to make the registry changes that would change the default save location of all office programs. Very simple solution.Anonymous
May 23, 2011
Simple solution????? To Change tgeh Registery. Give me a break. Kind of like putting out a car with a hearter than you have to get out of the car, open the trunk, and turn it on.Anonymous
July 13, 2011
hmm change Word 2010 to fix Outlook 2010 save location! GREAT catch "nobrainer100" Thanks.Anonymous
January 11, 2012
Thanks for the link Phil. For those who are not 100% sure what the differences are between 2007 and 2010 (apart from the obvious): In Outlook, click on File (top left) and then click Help in the left navigation menu. On the right hand side of the page there will be version information, i.e. "Version 14.0.6112.5000". Remember the Major Verion (14). Follow the steps in the artile that Phil posted, but replace the "11" in their example with the Major version that is applicable to your system. Cheers.Anonymous
February 08, 2012
Hey nobrainer100, If I right click in the left hand column, which is where the "recent places, computer,libraries" folders are, I get nothing coming up from my click. What am I doing wrong?Anonymous
March 14, 2012
Many thanks for the help...great info. that was easy to follow.Anonymous
March 28, 2012
@sputterbug10 - i believe they were talking about XP machines. YOu seem to have Windows 7. Not sure yet how to do this in 7.Anonymous
July 23, 2012
Thank you much no brainer. you're awesome!Anonymous
November 05, 2012
Just change the default save location in MS Word 2010, and the setting will be applied for Outlook 2010.Anonymous
November 14, 2012
@RomJ; not really. @nobrainer100; yeah I can't see how to do that in Win7. Any idea?Anonymous
January 15, 2013
I figured out how to change default for the Outlook 2010 insert directory. This change is done universally in Word for all Office programs. Open Word, click file, options, and the button called "Save". Change the default file location to what you want (browse). Click "OK" to save the changes. Now when you save a document or insert something in any of the office programs such as outlook this will be your default file location.Anonymous
February 28, 2013
Hi, I've tried all of the above and none of the suggestions work! Help! Please?Anonymous
April 22, 2013
Agree with Trudy. Changing the location in Word does not change it in Outlook.Anonymous
May 02, 2013
I followed the kb article from Microsoft and tweaked the registry. This fixed the problem for adobe .pdf attachments but did not resolve the issue with Word attachments in Outlook 2010. We are working on Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit and Office 2010.Anonymous
May 10, 2013
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July 08, 2013
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January 22, 2014
I WOULD LIKE TO CHANGE THE DAFAULT FOLDER FOR ATTACHING FILES. I WANT THE DEFAULT OPEN TO ANOTHER FOLDERAnonymous
February 01, 2014
Can't some tech genius out there just write an Outlook add-on that lets a user manage his/her own Outlook file locations. Surely its much safer to automate the registry edits through an interface. I'd pay some $$ for that.Anonymous
April 21, 2014
My own workaround for this is to save the folder location to my favourite folder locations then its a single click away. That said in my case i have 3 common folder locations i need to save to rather than just 1.Anonymous
February 19, 2015
Thanks nobrainer100 I won't embarrass you by trying to promote my ignorance by promoting your non ignorance to genius but thanks for that xAnonymous
April 15, 2015
Really? "simple" and "edit registry" are not in the same category if you're looking to increase your productivity without having to seek out someone in a corporate environment with Admin permissions....., No Setting Anywhere to change? I admit I looked everywhere I could think of before doing a google search, but still.... really? None?Anonymous
May 01, 2015
Wiorks Buddy, But Unable To Give Dive Location Like Any Other DriveAnonymous
June 18, 2015
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June 26, 2015
"So all you need to do is to change that by right clicking the documents file in the explorer window then properties>location and resetting to the same destination you have defined in word." confirm working with Win8 and office 2010 but not with Win7 Office 2010.Anonymous
August 14, 2015
Thanks Adam - your change worked perfectly for me in Windows 8 with Office 2013.Anonymous
September 23, 2015
Adam, you're a star -- that was easy and it WORKED!! A million thanks for making my life instantly better, and my blood pressure waaaay lower than if Microsoft had their way.Anonymous
October 13, 2015
Adam and Joe, I like your solution but do not see how to change the "location" after getting there under properties. Can you help? Using Windows 10.Anonymous
December 01, 2015
I have a related issue with attachments: To save space I have VBA macros, linked to cutsom icons on the quick access toolbar, to save attachments using the standard dialog, delete them from the message and add some text to the end of the message to record the fact that attachments were deleted. The attachments are saved to a variety of locations on my corporate file system. So far so good. It would be really useful for the text recording the atatchment deletion to include the filepath where it was saved to, but I can't find a way of doing this. I don't have Admin rights as I'm just a user of the corporate network, but I could possibly read the Registry from VBA (I can do this for keys I create in VBA but I haven't tried it for other keys). Any suggestions?Anonymous
February 22, 2016
You can change the default "Save As" folder in Outlook 2010 in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice14.0OutlookSecurityOutlookSecureTempFolder. Just change the path to one you want to use.Anonymous
February 22, 2016
Sorry I meant to say " Temp Folder"!