Imagine starting Outlook one day and being greeted with an error ‘Could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable’. It can be pretty annoying right? Don’t worry, in this article, we are going to guide you through how you can go about solving this error.
First of all, it is important to understand that this error usually occurs due to incorrect registry settings. And hence the solution requires you to modify some registry values. But please be very careful while doing so as even a minor mistake may cause serious damage to your system and may require reinstalling of the OS in worse cases.
How to solve ‘Outlook could not create the work file’?
- Close Outlook if you have it open
- Open the Registry Editor.
- If you’re using Windows 10 or 8, click on Windows + R keys to open Run Then type ‘regedit.exe’ and hit Ok
- If you’re using Windows 7 or earlier, click on the Start button and in the search box, type ‘exe’ and hit Enter
- Go to the following path
‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders’
- Right click on Cache and select Modify
Please refer the section below to note the cache values depending on the Windows version you have.
For Windows 10 and 8.1,
DWORD: Cache
Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
Data: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\NetCache
For Windows 8, 7 and Vista
DWORD: Cache
Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
Data: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
For Windows XP
DWORD: Cache
Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
Data: %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
- Exit the registry editor and restart Outlook
This time when you restart Outlook, you should be able to log in without any issues. The above solution should have fixed ‘Outlook could not create the work file’ error.
Resolve other Outlook issues using Hi5 PST repair software
The error ‘Outlook could not create the work file’ is one thing, but there are other Outlook errors that are more common. For instance, errors like ‘PST not found’, ‘Unknown messaging interface’ etc. are extremely common errors that occur mainly due to corruption in the PST file.
PST files can get corrupted due to various reasons such as PST file size issues, storing the PST file on a server or corruption in the storage space where the PST file is stored. And these corrupt PST files can interfere with the regular functioning of Outlook. Hence, in order to resolve these errors, one needs to repair the PST file using reliable tools such as Hi5 PST Repair Software.
It is a specialized PST repair tool that can resolve all kinds of corruption issues from minor to major. Once the PST file is repaired, just import it to Outlook and resume operations. Yes, it’s that simple.
The advantage of using this software is that it can be used with all versions of Outlook including Outlook 2016 and all versions of Windows like Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista and XP. Take advantage of the free trial version and repair your PST file for free!
