Lost

Maybe it has happened to you—it finally happened to me. You open an attachment directly in Outlook Express, edit it, and hit Save. Not Save As…—Save. Good luck trying to find the edited document.

I thought I could find where the document was saved by clicking on the attachment again, hitting Save As…, looking at the folder name in the address bar, and clicking up through the folders to the root of the C drive, noting the path traversed in reverse order. But, try as I might, I could not find that folder in the Windows XP file system. In fact, the drill-down came to a grinding halt halfway down: a folder that was supposed to be there wasn’t (and I’ve got my system set to display hidden folders and files, including “protected operating system files”). Hmm.

I looked for the folder using the Windows search function. No dice. Very strange. I double-checked the folder name, tried again. Not found. Weird.

As a last resort, I fired up the command prompt. I have to admit, it always feels good. It’s like an old friend—still “DOS prompt,” as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t get my hopes up, though, as I started down the path I had jotted down:

C:\>
C:\>cd documents and settings
C:\Documents and Settings>cd my_login_name
C:\Documents and Settings\my_login_name>cd local settings


Okay, the next folder—I mean, directory—I need is Temporary Internet Files, but guess what? It’s not there when I run the dir command (even with the /ah switch, which includes any hidden files in the directory). I go ahead and try to change to that directory anyway …

C:\Documents and Settings\my_login_name\Local Settings>cd temporary internet files


… and it works!

C:\Documents and Settings\my_login_name\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

(Folders with this name exist in various places on the hard drive, but supposedly not here, even though Outlook Express said it’s here.)

Clearly, I’m getting at directories and files that are beyond “hidden.” It’s like string theory or something. So I drill down to the last two directories (again, not visible with the dir /ah command):

C:\Documents and Settings\my_login_name\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files>cd content.ie5*
C:\Documents and Settings\my_login_name\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5>cd a1b2c3d4

(The last directory/folder is a random string of eight alphanumeric characters generated by Windows.)

Sure enough, the file I’d edited was there. Why Windows programmers in their infinite collective wisdom decided to put it there instead of some reasonable and readily accessible Temp folder is beyond me.

To sum up: using one method, I could find a file but couldn’t get at it; using another, I could get at the file but couldn’t find it; using both, I could retrieve the goddamn file.

And with this we conclude Geek Time Radio Hour, brought to you by the makers of LAMP.
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*Using the Windows file system explorer, I couldn’t see this folder, so that’s where the drill-down stopped during that phase of the research. For some reason, Temporary Internet Files—the folder just above it—was visible (it was not when I explored using the command prompt, as noted).