email data written to root directory

[Dabbler]

Hi, I have a situation where when I download emails from my ISP, every thing
seems to run sweetly. I can Open emails, send emails and lodge them in in the
files holders in Outlook as per norm. The starnge issue is that when I open
emails they are copied to the root directory of the disk on my computer. They
take the file names starting with the letter "S" with a number ranging from 1
to 999. Sometimes they have no file type associated with the name, but at
time do have a ".1" to ".9" suffexed.

I can open each file with notepad and the data is in plain text.

If I delete these files starting with "S", I can still read the emails.

The problem is that I end up with a mass of these files which take up a lot
of space.

Any ideas why this is happening?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Hi, I have a situation where when I download emails from my ISP,
every thing seems to run sweetly. I can Open emails, send emails and
lodge them in in the files holders in Outlook as per norm. The
starnge issue is that when I open emails they are copied to the root
directory of the disk on my computer. They take the file names
starting with the letter "S" with a number ranging from 1 to 999.
Sometimes they have no file type associated with the name, but at
time do have a ".1" to ".9" suffexed.

I can open each file with notepad and the data is in plain text.

If I delete these files starting with "S", I can still read the
emails.

The problem is that I end up with a mass of these files which take up
a lot of space.

You appear to have a third-party add-in, like an Antispam or -virus program
that is causing this. Outlook by itself won't behave that way.

 

[Dabbler]

Thanks Brian....I operate both ZoneAlarm Pro & Norton System Works 2005
Premiere on 2 systems - both of which are configured identically. One system
has the problem & the other doesn't. Any pointers on how I can find out what
is doing this?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks Brian....I operate both ZoneAlarm Pro & Norton System Works
2005 Premiere on 2 systems - both of which are configured
identically. One system has the problem & the other doesn't. Any
pointers on how I can find out what is doing this?

Which one has the problem?

 

[Dabbler]

Hi Brian,

Both are laptops, same model Toshiba satellite M40, each has MS Office 2003,
XP Pro, ZA Pro, Norton SW 2005 Premier. One I use mainly for Int Access when
travelling using GSM Mobile connect & the other is for home use for family.
The one I use for travel has the problem - despite whether it is connected to
the router here at home or while using Mob Connect. Each has the latest
updates for XP & MS Office. So as far as I can see they're pretty much in the
same state & config.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Both are laptops, same model Toshiba satellite M40, each has MS
Office 2003, XP Pro, ZA Pro, Norton SW 2005 Premier. One I use mainly
for Int Access when travelling using GSM Mobile connect & the other
is for home use for family. The one I use for travel has the problem
- despite whether it is connected to the router here at home or while
using Mob Connect. Each has the latest updates for XP & MS Office. So
as far as I can see they're pretty much in the same state & config.

Have you made sure that the Windows firewall is off in both? Have you
disabled anything while you're testing, like the Norton product (Symantec
products are notorious for not working well with Outlook)?

 

[Dabbler]

Thanks Brian,

Agree with your sentiments....I am totally disallusioned with Symantec. I
eventually found that if I deselected the 'Scan Incoming emails" on Norton
Anti Virus, the problem disappeared. I then went to Symeantec Support pages,
found nothing in their Knowledge Base, sent an email with details and 5 days
later got a reply suggesting that I might like to "leave the parameter
switched off!". I am asking myself is this problem resolution or just a cop
out.

I then tried to install NSW2006 Premier on the system to see if that would
fix the problem....What a mistake!! It wrote all over my MBR and made the
disk unreadable and all my data I saved unrecoverable.The net result is that
I now have a new Win XP Pro installed with all my progs reinstalled. What a
waste of money & time.

And, hey & on the plus side - no files being written to the root directory!
Appreciate the help of the pointers you gave

Cheers
Dabbler

 

[Brian Tillman]

Agree with your sentiments....I am totally disallusioned with
Symantec. I eventually found that if I deselected the 'Scan Incoming
emails" on Norton Anti Virus, the problem disappeared. I then went to
Symeantec Support pages, found nothing in their Knowledge Base, sent
an email with details and 5 days later got a reply suggesting that I
might like to "leave the parameter switched off!". I am asking myself
is this problem resolution or just a cop out.

Well, other AV products seem to have gotten Outlook integration correct, but
in any event, there's no need to scan incoming mail as long as you run the
on-access scanner.

 

[Dabbler]

Thanks,

Any suggestions for AV checking other than Symantec??

 

[Brian Tillman]

Any suggestions for AV checking other than Symantec??

The Symantec product is fine as long as you install it without the option to
scan mail. Avast AntiVirus and AVG from Grisoft also seem to do the job.
McAfee VirusScan doesn't seem to have as many people reporting problems,
either.