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Set default folder for attachments in Outlook 2003

by Steve Wiseman on September 11, 2007 · 7 comments

in Windows


.

I had a user ask me this week: “Steve, I always save my attachments in a download folder on my computer. Unfortunately Microsoft Outlook always defaults to ‘My Documents’, and I can’t see any way to change this. Do you have any idea how to change the default download folder?”

This is correct. There is no option I can find in Outlook that will allow you to change the default download folder for attachments. This means every time you try to save an attachment you need to start browsing around your drive to find the right spot. This can be a time consuming task if you have network shares that slow down explorer.

Outlook Attchment Default Location

After doing a little digging I discovered that the default download location can be changed by opening regedit and drilling down to this registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options

Create a new string value under this key (If it does not already exist) named DefaultPath, and set the value to the absolute path you would like to use as your default location.

In my case I wanted to change it to c:\downloads\ Here is what it looks like in the registry:

Microsoft Outlook Attachment New Default Location Registry Settings

So now when I go to save an attachment, I don’t need to fish around for the downloads folder – it automatically defaults right to it:

Microsoft Outlook Attachment New Default Location

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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Carl Bland November 4, 2009 at 10:39 am

I do this but now the attachments are overwritten

2 N.D. April 28, 2010 at 11:16 am

Awesome tip, thanks! This Microsoft oversight in Outlook has been driving me crazy and your fix worked like a champ!!

3 Gary Frost May 27, 2010 at 11:13 am

NICE!! that worked in my 2007 as well. Why can’t MS make things easy and document them for us? Thanks soooo much!

4 dan September 27, 2010 at 8:46 pm

works in 2010 too, thanks for the quick tip

5 Jan March 24, 2011 at 4:54 am

Confirming that this works for Outlook 2007 (Office 12). Thank you.

6 me October 12, 2011 at 7:58 am

nice. screw you, microsoft.

7 Jean August 3, 2012 at 8:58 am

Nice, thanks. It worked on my computer, but not on another. Any suggestions.

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