Outlook Tasks

[Scott]

I recently installed and ran CCleaner. It seemed great, however, now I am unable to open Tasks assigned to me in Outlook. Also any tasks I assign can not be opened. Thus the information is not pulled into the task manager nor can it be accepted or declined. I have stumped everyone on why its not working but CCleaner seems to be the variable that cased the change. I currently have a support request into Microsoft but have stumped them on the first pass.. It seems I'm going to have to reload outlook which of course will make me reluctant to use CCleaner again. Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

[rridgely]

Never heard of this before. Make sure that when you run ccleaner all other programs are closed.

[pwillener]

I run Ccleaner every day, and I never experienced any problems with Outlook (2003).

 

Can you describe what you did? Do you have Office 2003 checked in the Applications tab?

 

Did you run Issues? Did you let Cclenaer take a backup before that?

 

...

 

I just did a test - added a few tasks, shut down Outlook, and ran Ccleaner (not Issues).

 

After restarting Outlook, all tasks are still there, and I can open them.

Edited January 19, 2006 by pwillener

[Scott]

The issue is when you try to assign tasks or recieve assigned task. I ran the issues as well as the cleaner. The reason I'm sure its CCleaner is that I loaded it on several machines and now I have the same issue with all those machines. The task manager will work fine if you are only creating tasks for your outlook, but when you do an "assign task" the person you assign it to can not open the task to accept or decline it. It therefore never gets pulled into their task manager. You also will not be able open tasks assigned to you even from machines that are not using CCleaner. I have another round with microsoft this morning so I'll see what they say. I'm about to reload outlook on all the machines that have been affected if they can't fix it today.

[Glenn]

Is everyone with whom you're working on the same Microsoft Exchange Server?

 

Is everyone always connected and have Send/Receive settings on "Send immediately"?

[Scott]

Send and recieve immediately yes..

 

same server? yes, but not sure sure MS exchange... but the same Server running Server 2000 if that helps.

 

I know enough to be dangerous, so I have a consultant who does all my networking and server stuff... who is convinced btw, that Ccleaner must have created my issue as he can't figure it out either... He thought it was a setting or something that got changed in outlook, but there are basically none for the tasks manager. He was then was convinced it must be MS anti-spy or Norton, but has ruled them out by turning them all off and it is still not solving the issue.

[Glenn]

I suspect the Tasks may be in the C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKxx folder of the sender and/or recipient at some point and getting wiped by CCLeaner. This may be difficult to verify because the "xx" is a different number for each user and is a very hidden folder (normally will not display even if you disable all the "Hide" settings in Windows Explorer).

 

There may be an easier way but:

 

Open an e-mail with an attachment. Open (don't Save at this point, this will probably offer My Documents as the save location) the attachment and then, in whatever application, click File save as. The OLKxx folder for your user account should be the default save location. You now have the exact file path and should be able to test what happens when you assign a task, run CCleaner, etc.

[Scott]

OK I have ruled out Ccleaner as my problem (I think). I had it loaded and have run it on my machine at home, which can send and recieve assigned Tasks. I have turned off firewalls, anti-spy, unloaded Office, reinstalled office, etc. etc. I still haven't found my problem. I have narrowed it down to my local ISP or Norton Corporate AV 10.0 I'm actually leaning towards my ISP, but they don't think so.. Tonight I will take my laptop home and try Assigning Tasks connect to DSL (different from my cable ISP in the office) so hopefully that will give me some more insights as to what is going on. I do have Win 98 se and MS office 2000 on my home computer and XP / MS office 2003 on my lap top so it could still be something to do with 2003 or XP I guess. Anyway thanks for all the help and Ccleaner gets removed from the suspects list (at least for now)... wish me luck!!!! Oh and here is what Microsoft on how to find the temp file for outlook although I did find it with the previous instructions:

 

"The folder C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKxx is actually used to save temporary file when you open attachment from Outlook. It does not save task. So this folder should not related to the problem. Anyway, if you want to look at this folder, I can tell you a method to access it.

 

1. Click Start -> Run

 

2. Type regedit and click OK. This will launch registry editor.

 

3. Expand the registry tree on the left hand pane and open following entry

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security

 

4. Now on the right hand pane, you should see an item called OutlookSecureTempFolder

 

5. Open this item and you should see a folder path. Copy this path.

 

6. Click Start -> Run

 

7. Paste the path into the box and click OK. It should open this folder.

 

 

 

Hope this helps. "

[Scott]

Microsoft finally Acknowledged the problem is theirs: Here is the response:

 

Thanks for your reply. We received a report from product team a few minutes ago which discusses exactly the same issue you are experiencing. I suspect this is the cause of your issue.

 

 

 

This is what the report mentioned:

 

"When a task gets assigned to the computer it will appear in the preview pane but it cannot be opened by double clicking on it. The accept and reject buttons also does not seem to work, it will not add the task into your tasks list."

 

 

 

The cause is a recently security update: Security Update for Outlook 2003 (KB892843). Product team is currently testing this resolution. Although it is not recommended, but meanwhile if you want to resolve the problem, you need to uninstall this update. Here is how:

 

1. Click Start menu -> Click Control Panel.

 

2. If Control Panel is not in Classic View, click Switch to Classic View

 

3. Double-click the "Add or Remove Programs" icon.

 

4. Check "Show Updates" option

 

5. Highlight KB892843 update and then click Remove. Note: You may see 2 or more copies of this update. If so, remove all of them.

 

6. Restart Outlook.

 

Note: Uninstalling the update will NOT fix tasks that have already been received but future tasks work.

[Kramer]

I have a similar problem where I can assign a task in Outlook 2003, the recipient receives it normally, and accepts it. When their reply hits my inbox with the acceptance message, I can preview their reply, but cannot open it. The mouse pointer will momentarily change into an hourglass as if something's happening, but it will not open. I do not get an error message. If I enable the preview pane, I can see the message contents. I can even forward their message, then open its attachment, and voila, a normal "task accepted" form will open up.

 

I tried looking for the update number you referenced, but that parcular number doesn't appear in my programs list under Add/Remove.

 

In the auto-preview pane, it acknowledges the message contains "active content". I went into security settings and enabled all active content.

 

I'm lost.

 

Any other suggestions?

[Kramer]

I stand corrected. Scott is dead-on.

 

I failed to spot the hotfix file number because I was looking under patch downloads for Windows XP OS, not Outlook 2003. Indeed, the file appears as installed twice. I deleted both instances, rebooted, and now we're back to normal operation. I do note however that the task replies already in my inbox (prior to deleting the updates) still cannot be opened. Any new tasks received AFTER I did this work properly.