We are having a strange problem on some of our workstations, but not all. They all are configured identically, so we really aren’t sure exactly what the problem is.
We have a web page on our intranet where users go to register for training sessions. They receive an email with a link to a custom .vcs file that has been created for them dynamically. The way it works is that they click the link, Internet Explorer opens, they are asked if they want to open or save the file, they click Open, and then they save the item, which then puts it in their Outlook calendar.
For some of our users, the IE dialog box asking them if they want to open or save pops up real fast and then disappears. For others, it doesn’t appear at all.
Here’s the weird part. You can navigate to the link directly by using IE and typing in the URL to the .vcs file. That works. Also, if you open an IE window and then click the link from the email, that works. It seems that on some of these workstations, it’s having trouble with Outlook handing off the baton to IE.
Even weirder: I can create a new profile with vanilla user rights on one of these same desktops, and I don’t have the problem.
Is this just profile corruption, or is this something else?
All of these desktops are running a fully patched Windows XP Pro SP2. They are using a fully patched IE 6.0 SP2, and Outlook 2003 SP2 with all the post-SP2 fixes not including the recently-released SP3. I have confirmed that on the affected systems, .vcs files are known to the OS and are configured to open with Outlook. The “confirm open after download” option on the file type is enabled.
Any ideas?