Its been several days since i started getting this annoying error. It lets me open a document but won’t save them. I tried running the other office apps and they seemed to be working just fine except for Outlook which gives the same error.
Outlook could not create the work file, check the temp environment variable.
I tried moving the temp folder to root but its no use. i even changed its attributes and removed the read only check mark. I kept on checking Word if the problem was gone, kept restarting my PC, and uninstalled Office a couple of times. It will return the same error message:
Word could not create the work file, check the temp environment variable.
I am getting desperate and planned to reinstall Windows. Then, i have recalled that the problem started when i got back from vacation which i eventually removed one of my hard drives out. Thinking Windows might have rearranged my drives, i checked the registry for my temp folder settings and the cache was assigned to the wrong drive which is now a DVD ROM. DriveClone Pro must have changed my TEMP folder when I installed it.
My Solution:
I simply pointed the registry entry to my temp folder start Word and it works fine. Navigate to the registry key below:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft >Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders > Cache
Change: the value to your TEMP folder like %USERPROFILE%\TEMP
To open the registry:
- click on START > RUN then
- type in regedit
THANK YOU!!! I had the same problem after backing up my HD to an external drive. It changed the entry to point to the external drive for TEMP, Favorites, History, and Cookies.
Thank you you saved me a lot of time. I was about to reinstall all again.
Thanks so much for this. I have been fighting for a day to get this fixed!
Thanks. Exact same issue – I rearranged the cables in my computed and apparently the drive letter got reassigned from G to F. As usual Microsoft knowledge base made me try all kinds of useless fixes.
thanks… that fixed it.
you are the only site I coudl find with the reg fix.
WOW! That fixed all my problems! It’s funny how one little registry entry can affect so much on a system.
By the way… The reason why I ran into a problem in the first place is because I just deleted a partition on my hard drive (to free up some space). The ‘Cache’ registry entry was still pointing to that partition that no longer exists (and Microsoft got confused and kept throwing those annoying errors).
Thanks for the help TildeMark!
I have MS 2007 on windows 7, and I tried your fix it didn’t work. I have no idea how to fix this error and because of this error it wont let me save word document or attach documents to emails that contain pictures. Any help anyone could provide in this matter would be much appreciated.
THANK YOU…I’ve been going crazy trying to figure this out. It affected both word and outlook.
I did try to make the changes through system – the advanced tab and environment…but for some reason it wouldn’t work and I needed to do it through regedit!
Thank you for replying on the forum (a random act of kindness seeing that you had already written this post- that’s how I found your blog.
I work from home and spent pretty much most of today rebooting with each change and trying to fix it until I saw your post I was practically in tears. Now I’m ready to pay the kindness forward.
To others – works with Vista and office 2007.
I just tried this and it didn’t work (I have Windows 2007). Any other advice? BTW, I wasn’t messing with any kind of drive or anything different than what I normally do. It just started happening randomly today. Earlier, my anti-virus scanner had shown a virus which I removed and I wonder if it’s related to that. Any advice is appreciated!
tried this but no joy. this error appeared in outlook after user defragged disk.
also tried:
checked all env variables appear fine
removed all data from %system%\temp & %localuser%\temp.
tried repairing outlook
next checking the permissions on all users.
any other suggestions?
Thanks for you sharing. I have the problem after I remove my Virtual RAM Drive.
The registry point to my RAM Drive latter Z:\temp.
After I fixed registry. Office 2007 run as normal.
FOR WINDOWS 7 AND MICROSOFT 2007
Check the TEMP Folder
An invalid TEMP environment variable can cause errors with the Office Setup program. This section describes how to verify that your temporary folders are correctly set up.
First, you must determine the location of your Windows TEMP folder and verify the validity of your TEMP environment variables. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
2. If you are using Classic View, in Control Panel, double-click the System icon. If you are using Category View, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click the System icon. When the System Properties dialog box appears, click Environment Variables on the Advanced tab.
3. In the Environment Variables dialog box, look under User variables for user name for the columns Variable and Value. The TMP and TEMP environmental settings appear under these columns.
Examples of valid settings are as follows:
TEMP = C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
-or-
TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
If a TEMP (or TMP) variable entry is not listed, follow these steps:
1. Click New. The New User Variable dialog box appears.
2. In the Variable Name box, type TEMP.
3. Press the TAB key to move to the Variable Value box, and then type C:\WINDOWS\TEMP (or any other valid path and folder name).
4. Click Set or OK to add these values to the User variables for user name box.
4. Click OK to close the Environment Variables dialog box, click OK to close the System Properties dialog box, and then close Control Panel.
Hope you all get it!
Received these steps from: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309191
This worked fine
In the registry it should look like (once you find the cache, the path is on the OP’s first post.)
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
so i changed it to
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\
then click ok
microsoft word can now save again.
Thanks so much for this. I am always having problems with my computer in one way or another. Thank goodness for external drives
How do you fix it on Windows Vista?
Thanks. This changed my issues with Word. Like the others, it changed my temp, favorites, history, & cookies to my USB flash drive. My follow-up question is how or, better yet, where do I direct the favorites, history, & cookies now that I know how to change it.