I sometimes try to save a file in Windows XP and find that it’s being saved in something called OLK (I think) but I can never locate what OLK is, or why the file is being saved there.
Now–today–I clicked “Yes” under “Do you want to save?” for a file I’d opened directly from e-mail, and naturally, I can’t find where I’d saved (and closed) it? I think it may be in the mysterious “OLK” but I can’t find where that is. Anyone have any ideas for this inept (but fairly desperate) computer user? Thanks.
To me it sounds like a randomized file folder name under your temporary internet files or something like that. Some windows routines just make up their own file folder names that way… three random letters of the alphabet.
Try looking under temporary internet files under windows and your ‘documents and settings’ profiles - with options to see system files turned on.
Open up Windows Explorer and click on the “Search” button.
Click on the “All files and folders” option.
Type “OLK” (no quotes) in the box labeled “All or part of the file name”
On the “Look In” dropdown list, select "Local Hard Drives (C:).
Open up the “More Advanced Options” selection.
Put a check “Search Hidden files and folders” leaving other options as they are. (If there are problems here, you want the above checked, as well as “Search System Folders” and “Search Subfolders”)
Click on the Search button.
You’ll likely have several things that show up, but hopefully only one of them will look like a folder. Click on this, and you should see your saved files. You can drag them from here to wherever you want them. For future reference, when saving a file, you can change the location in the dialog box.
An alternative is to try and find it by looking at the C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK* path, replacing “user” with your username on the computer.
Here’s the latest wrinkle: in a window called “open a document” I found the file I’m looking for but when I click on it, i get a window telling me that the document name or file is not valid, and suggests I look in Documents and Settings (which I’ve seen before but can’t find now). The suggestion is that I begin with a “C:” prompt (which I haven’t used in years and can’t remember how to start one,) and then look in various more specific locations. So basically I’m asking how I get to “C: Documents and Settings/ MyName/ Local Settings/Temporary Internet Files/OLK4/ the File I’m looking for”
Just out of curiousity I’m also wondering why this goddamned stuff is so well hidden, but maybe that’s my frustration talking…
Open My Computer. Doubleclick on Local Disk (C:). Doubleclick on Documents and Settings, then your username, then on Local Settings, then on Temporary Internet Files. Look for the OLK folder or file.
On my XP, it doesn’t have an OLK folder, but it often uses OLK as a temp filename.
Why don’t you change the name & location when you save the file, so that you can find it?
A lot of files and folders are hidden by default. To view them you must click the Folder Options under the Tools menu in Windows Explorer or My Documents, click the View tab and goto Hidden files and folders. Put a dot in the radio button next to Show hidden… and then Apply and OK. Now look for your file.
Obviously there’s a bit of cross posting here (and thanks for the info guys) but I’m still trying to figure out how to open up a “C:” PLUS which I’m incredibly frustrated that I’ve actually located the file I want but am unable to access it. Any further help will be appreciated, as I’m barely able to remain civil as I’m cursing out my computer for its lack of cooperation.
**Redtail23 ** wrote: “Open My Computer. Doubleclick on Local Disk (C:). Doubleclick on Documents and Settings, then your username, then on Local Settings, then on Temporary Internet Files. Look for the OLK folder or file.”
redtail: I’ve gotten as far as my username, but there no folder there labeled as “Local Settings”–just Cookies, Desktop, favorites, My documents, start menu, User Dada, WINDOWs, a little text-pad logo labeled AdobeWeb, none of which seem to have Local Settings as a subfolder.
Open My Computer. Doubleclick on Local Disk (C:). Doubleclick on Documents and Settings, then your username, then on Local Settings, then on Temporary Internet Files. Look for the OLK folder or file.
On my XP, it doesn’t have an OLK folder, but it often uses OLK as a temp filename.
Why don’t you change the name & location when you save the file, so that you can find it?
Your problem is that Windows saves attachments temporarily in that folder when you open them. It’s not meant to be a repository for you to use to save documents to. While I can’t verify it without actually monitoring your usage, here’s my guess as to what happened (using Word as an example, although it could have been another app, such as Excel).
You opened an attachment that was a Word Document, so it was temporarily stored in that OLK* folder. You then clicked “Save” instead of “Save As”. At this point, you had saved a document in this folder using Word. Word remembers where you save documents and assumes you want future documents saved there. Because of that, when you now create a new document and save it, it defaults to that OLK* directory. If this sounds like a possibility, then just use “Save As” next time, and change to the directory where you’d actually like things stored. Also, if you plan on saving attachments, save them first to the location you’d like (right clicking on the attachment should give you this option), then open them from where you saved them.
As for your other problem, I’m guessing it’s because it’s a hidden folder. There are ways of viewing hidden items, but I’m not sure if that’s a safe route for you to take. Using my method outlined above, locate the file in Windows Explorer. Drag and drop the files you want to a directory of your choosing and then open them from there.
Actually the best solution, if you’re using MS Office products, is to set the default file in the user settings. Then it reverts to your defined default every time you re-open the program. (It will work as you described for one session. IOW, if you SaveAs to a new location, then it will try to save everything there. But once you close the program, it resets to the default.)
I believe this also works on attachments opened from email.
For Word, click the Tools menu, then Options. Select the File Locations tab, then highlight the Documents item in the list. Click the Modify button, then in the popup window in the left-side pane click My Documents. Click OK & OK to save the changes. (That’s for Word2003, but I don’t think it’s changed since at least Office 2000.) There are similar settings for the other Office suite programs.
OF COURSE I’m going to try to save the files “next time” to a safe known location on my hard drive (as I do every time) but when I don’t (this time, I think I forgot i was saving a file that didn’t already exist in a known location on my HD).
Any ideas why it keeps telling me that the location is not valid? I mean, obviously the location (that the computer conveniently lists for me as "C: Documents and Settings/ MyName/ Local Settings/Temporary Internet Files/OLK4/ the File I’m looking for) exists, and the file is saved somewhere, but I can’t access it? That makes no sense to me.
OF COURSE I’m going to try to save the files “next time” to a safe known location on my hard drive (as I do every time) but when I don’t (this time, I think I forgot i was saving a file that didn’t already exist in a known location on my HD), it would be sweet if i could find it and use it anyway.
Sorry about all this hassle, but this is incredibly frustrating, to lose a file by absent-mided=ly saving it (when i hadn’t already indicated a locationj) and then to “find” the file after a laborious search only to be told that “I” had requested an invalid location.
In a way I’d be much happier to have been told “Sorry, jerkface, you lost the file by clicking Save instead of Save As. Ha, ha, ha” instead of this rigamarole.
I understand your frustration. I work with computers all day and frequently curse them.
Can you tell me how you got the “open a document” window? I’m not sure where you’re working from.
Can you get back to that window? If so, look closely at the icon for the document you’re trying to find. Is it a document icon, or does it have the little arrow that means it’s a shortcut? I’ve noticed before that the “Recent Documents” will often have shortcuts to documents that no longer exist in that location. That could be the situation that you’re dealing with.
I’m not sure if I’ve even got step 1 down: i.e., I don’t think I can locate “WIndows Explorer”–I 've got a shortcut called “internet explorer” but I’m not seeing something called “Windows explorer.” Of course, it’s probably open right in front of me, but damned if I can see it much less open it…
Windows Explorer is found by clicking on Start, then All Programs, then Accessories. It should be on that menu, unless your system has been ‘tamper-proofed’ by some well-meaning IT professional. You can also get it, in a lot of cases, just by right-clicking and choosing ‘Explore’ from the context menu (for instance, right-click on the Start button).
