How to enable and use Internet Explorer mode in the new Microsoft Edge

Applies to All Windows 10 Versions

Whereas it is quite easy to set or change the location of pst-files belonging to a POP3 account, changing the location of the ost-file for an Exchange, Outlook.com or IMAP account is much more troublesome.

This can lead to issues as these files can grow quite large and the disk or partition on which you have Windows installed might not be accommodated for that. Especially if you invested in a fast SSD-drive, you usually don’t have GBs of space to waste and rather locate this data on your larger data drive.

While you can force the location of ost-files via Registry value, you’ll need to remove and re-add the account and download all mail again.

An effective and more direct solution is to use Symbolic Links. While the matter around them and how they function is quite complex, using them is luckily fairly easy and they are a very effective solution for this issue.

• Method 1: ForceOSTPath Registry values
• Method 2: Symbolic Links
  • Creating Symbolic Links
  • Creating Symbolic Links via a GUI based tool

Method 1: ForceOSTPath Registry values

If you have the opportunity to remove and re-add your account and also re-download all your mail again from the mail server, then using the ForceOSTPath Registry value is the recommended way to go.

This Registry key allows you to set the default location for all newly created ost-files when adding an Exchange, Outlook.com or IMAP account to Outlook.

Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook
Value name: ForceOSTPath
Value type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
Value: path to your storage folder

As the Value you give the path to the folder where you want to keep your ost-files. You do not need to use quotes for this path, even if it contains spaces.
Example; D:\Documents\Outlook Files

Note: Still using Outlook 2010 or previous with an IMAP account? Then use the ForcePSTPath instead as these versions of Outlook use a pst-file to cache IMAP data in.

You can control the location of newly created ost-files and pst-files via the Registry.

Method 2: Symbolic Links

What exactly Symbolic Links are and how they function is a bit too much and too complex to explain for this guide but you can use Wikipedia if you really want to learn more.

For now, you can look at Symbolic Links as advanced shortcuts which keep the original extension of the file that it is pointing to (instead of a lnk-file) which tricks the system into thinking that it is actually working with that file from that location rather than the location it is pointing to.

So, in our case, we are going to create a symbolic link for the ost-file in its original location on the system drive (C:\-drive) which points to the actual file on your data drive.

Note:
Even when you only have 1 drive or partition, you can use the method discussed in this guide to move the pst-file or ost-file to another location on that drive such as your Documents folder so that they for instance can be included in your backups more easily.

Creating Symbolic Links

To create a Symbolic Link, you can use the MKLINK Command line tool or the New-Item PowerShell (version 5 or later) cmdlet. Whichever method you pick, the result is the same.

In the example below, we assume that the name of the ost-file is outlookcom.ost and that we move it from its original location to a location called D:\Documents\Outlook Files

1. Close Outlook.
2. Move the ost-file or pst-file from its original location to its new location.
   The default location is; C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
3. Open an elevated Command or PowerShell window.
   A quick way to do this is;
   1. Open the Start Menu and immediately type one of the following;
      • Command Prompt
      • PowerShell
   2. Right click on the result and choose; Run as administrator
   3. Provide administrator credentials for your computer or press “Yes” to accept the User Account Control prompt.
4. Type one of the following commands (of course with your own file names and locations)depending on whether you are using the Command Prompt or PowerShell;
   • Command Prompt
     mklink "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\outlookcom.ost" "D:\Documents\Outlook Files\outlookcom.ost"
   • PowerShell
     New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\outlookcom.ost" -Value "D:\Documents\Outlook Files\outlookcom.ost"

Tip!
You can actually leave the variable %username% in your command. Upon executing, the command it will automatically resolve it to your actual username.

Once you’ve created the symbolic link, the file icon will look like a shortcut in Explorer. However, instead of having the Shortcut file type, it still holds the ost-extension and the “Outlook Data File” file type (Windows 7) or the “.symlink” file type (Windows 10).

Its file size will report as 0KB but the file it is pointing to of course still holds its size; The link to that file simply doesn’t take up any disk space.

Comparison between the properties and look of a Symbolic Link,
Shortcut and the original file (which is marked with 2 in the name).

Undoing the changes
When you want to undo the changes, simply close Outlook, delete the Symbolic Link file like and other file and then move the ost-file back to its original location.

Create a directory junction for the original location to the new location

C:\>mklink /j "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Update Cache" "D:\Update Cache"

This is a very miscellaneous error and one that is not easily solved sometimes but here are a few things to try

1.     If you have any COM add-ins installed, un-install them unless they are absolutely required or just untick them to test.  COM add-ins are a special type of add-in written in machine language. They are often installed without explicit approval.  COM add-ins are often reported as causing memory problems

2.     To see if you have multiple sessions open, press CTL-ALT-DELETE and check how any Excel applications are running.  There should be just one running. If a new Excel session opens each time you double click on a workbook, try unchecking the Excel Option “Ignore other applications” if it is checked on the Options General tab.

3.     Excel may think your worksheets are larger than you do.  This can consume a lot of memory. Normally your scroll area controlled by the scroll bars is very small.  However, sometimes Excel thinks there are cells well below your used range. One way is to check where Excel thinks the last cell is located.  Do this by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+END.  If it well below your used range, then select all “unused” columns in this range and delete them. Then select all unused rows in this range and delete them .  Then close and re-open Excel

4.     Install the latest upgrades to your version of Office.

5.     You can try deleting temp files. There is a nice piece of software called Temp File Deleter https://www.add-ins.com/temp_file_deleter.htm

6.     If you are using Google Desktop Search, un-install it.  Google Desktop Search appears to be a memory hog and has been reported to interfere with Microsoft Excel.  Specifically, it installs a COM add-in that monitors every action in Excel so that it can index it which can slow everything down

7.     If you are using Excel 2010-2013, click File, Options, Advanced, and go to the General section. Check if you have an alternate startup folder and check its content, and remove anything you do not need

8.     Check and see if you have an un-needed add-in or workbook in your XLSTART folder. This folder may vary location wise depending on local and roaming profiles

9.     Delete your XLB file. (Search for *.XLB) It can become corrupt but cause no visible problems. If corrupt it can consume lots of memory. Excel will recreate, but button customization will be lost.  This is a file where Excel stores its toolbar settings.   To delete it, use the XLB File Deleter which is a free product. There have been reports that doing this will solve problems.

10.  Your printer or its driver may be causing the problem.  HP printers have a history of causing a memory problem with Excel.  We do not know if HP fixed the problem and it may still be around or surfacing again.  Change your default printer if you have other printers available as a test

11.  Use of macros that do very extensive file creating, data manipulation, and graphing have been known to cause memory leak problems. Such macros are ones that typically run for 30 minutes or longer.

12.  If you have Track Changes turned on in Excel, turn off Track Changes as it uses a fair amount of memory.  The default is Off.

13.  Turn off AutoRecovery, as this takes up Excel memory.  However, have a backup if you do. To turn off AuoRecovery go to File,Options, Save. Uncheck Auto Recovery

14.  Problems in your application data folder for Excel can be the cause.  The folder is typically “c:\documents and settings\%username%\application data\microsoft\excel”.  This is a hidden folder, so set your Explorer options to show hidden folders. After backing up, rename or delete this folder and its subfolders.  Reboot the machine and open Excel.  Excel will recreate the folder and needed contents.

15.  Run the following 2 commands. “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\excel.exe” /unregserver and “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\excel.exe” /regserver. (Change the number 11 to 12 for Excel 2007, 14 for Excel 2010 and 15 for Excel 2013) These commands remove most of the Excel registry entries and then resets them.  However, they do leave some residual settings.

16.  A more extensive way to clean the registry is to rename the Excel registry key and let Excel recreate it. It depends on the version of Excel.  First, close Excel.  Then do Run, Regedit and go to the Excel registry key.  It will be “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\%version_number%\Excel”
where %version_number% is 11 for Excel 2003, 12 for Excel 2007, 14 for Excel 2010 and 15 for Excel 2013. Rename this to OldExcel (this will back it up). Then re-open Excel.  Excel will rebuild the registry entry.  You will need to manually install any needed add-ins

17.  It may be the case that the Server or PC that Excel is running on needs more memory or that you need to close other running apps which may be interfering with Excel or taking up more memory that Excel needs

18.  Try opening Excel in Safe Mode. For example C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe /s

19.  Try opening Excel whilst holding the shift key down to stop any macros from executing or type Click Start, Run, “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe” /Automation