One of the most used and least appreciated functions in Outlook is the Auto-Complete. It’s so automatic to most people that they don’t even realize they’re using it. You just type out the first few letters of someone’s name or email address, hit Tab to let Outlook fill in the rest of it, and move on. Let that little tool stop working however, and now we have a problem. It’s like speed dial on your phone; all you know is the speed dial code, not the actual phone number, with Outlook all you know is the first couple of letters, not the whole email address. Now what do you do?
Unfortunately there are few places where all of the information that you need to take care of an issue with Outlook Auto-Complete can be found. It’s scattered here and there all over the interweb. Believe me, I’ve recently searched for information to help me take care of an issue for a client, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Hopefully this article will show up high enough in a Google search to help people out and save them some time.
Where Is It?
Most of us know that there’s a file associated with the Auto-Complete tool where all of the Email Addresses are stored (if you didn’t before then you do now and you can pretend like you knew all along), probably the most asked question about that is where is it? There are a couple of places it could be depending on what OS you’re running and what version of Office.
Windows XP and Office XP, Office 2007
c:\Documents and Settings\<user profile>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
The name of the file will be the same as the Outlook Profile name with an .nk2 extension.
Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Office XP, Office 2007
c:\Users\<user profile>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook
The name of the file will be the same as the Outlook Profile name with an .nk2 extension.
Windows XP and Office 2010
c:\Documents and Settings\<user profile>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache
The name of the file will start with “Stream_Autocomplete_” and end with “.dat “
Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Office 2010
c:\Users\<user profile>\Local Settings\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache
The name of the file will start with “Stream_Autocomplete_” and end with “.dat “
The good thing about this file is that it can be copied and moved to a new computer. That way you don’t lose all of those addresses when IT decides to replace your computer with a something newer and decidedly not yours.
Can I Make Changes?
Is the drop down that pops up when you start typing in an address 6 inches tall? Then you might need to clean that up a little. NirSoft has come up with a great tool called NK2Edit, it will open your nk2 or the 2010 dat file and allow you to delete or make changes to entries in the Auto-Complete list.
Import NK2 to 2010 DAT?
You’ve got your nk2 file saved from your old computer, but your new computer has Office 2010 on it, now what? Microsoft saw fit to include this functionality with Outlook 2010. Put the nk2 file where it would go if you had Office 2003 or 2007 (see above if you don’t remember).
Go to Start -> Run and type “outlook.exe /importnk2”
Outlook will now open and import all of the addresses from your nk2 file into your 2010 dat file. It will also rename your nk2 file to nk2.old, if you ever need to do it again you can just get rid of the .old part and run the command just like before.
Can Auto-Complete Be Disabled?
Why in the world would you want to do something like that? Ok, assuming you’re doing some troubleshooting on an issue with the Auto-Complete, you might want to disable it.
Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007
1. Click Tools
2. Click Options
3. Go to the Preferences Tab
4. Click the E-mail Options… Button
5. Click the Advanced E-mail Options… Button
6. Clear the Check Box next to “Suggest names while completing To, Cc, and Bcc fields.
Outlook 2010
1. Click File
2. Click Options
3. Click Mail (on the left hand column)
4. Scroll down and clear the Check Box next to “Use Auto-Complete List to suggest names when typing in the To, Cc, and Bcc lines
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting Auto-Complete really only includes two issues; it’s not working at all or it’s slow. If it’s slow, then you need clean out the list, it’s gotten too long and your computer is struggling to find the resources to fill up your ridiculously long Auto-Complete list. If it’s not working at all, not remembering email addresses or not dropping down then your best course of action is to make a back up of the nk2 or 2010 dat file, disable Auto-Complete, delete the nk2/2010 dat file (not the backup), re-enable Auto-Complete, and reimport your Addresses.
Hopefully this will prove to be helpful to someone out there looking for some information on Auto-Complete, if you’ve made it this far, please let me know if you found this info useful or not in the comments section below.
Dennis Edmondson Jr
Computing Concepts LLC
