Why is Outlook 2007 showing red Xs instead of my pictures?
We got this message from Fred early in the AM. I guess its great for him that we don’t sleep past 7AM anymore!
I am using Outlook 2007. When I get email the pictures show as Red boxes with “X”’s in them. I used to be able to right click on the boxes and download the pictures. Now for some reason, I right click but the pictures don’t download. I don’t get the option to download a second time so the system must think the pictures are showing. Please help.
We went back and forth trying to enable and disable security options inside Outlook and Internet Explorer but we weren’t having any luck. I didn’t want our faithful reader to start bashing his head against the monitor. So I said screw it and went a’ looking for the registry value. Here is what I wrote back to Fred:
Found the solution, it is a registry entry called BlockHTTPImages found at this location.
\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\BlockHTTPImages
change the value 1 to 0 (zero) and reboot. All your images should have returned.
I was sure that was going to resolve our early morning Outlook hi-jinks and it sure did! Here was Fred’s final response:
YOU DID IT!!!! I don’t know how to thank you. This has been driving me nuts! I found that a lot of people are having the same problem (from reading other forums) and nobody had a solution. Thanks again. Fred
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about 4 years ago
You may have gotten the images to show but haven’t you now disabled the security that not showing the images provides?
Shouldn’t there be a bar at the top of the message to show the images if you want? If it’s not showing up then I would work on reinstalling Outlook/Office before bypassing the security.
about 4 years ago
first off my antivirus does my protecting i dont need ms protecting me from myself.
i would love a better solution. reinstalling didnt work.
about 4 years ago
I would double check that your anti-virus product is actually scanning .jpg extensions. There are a few that don’t scan .jpg by default.
You are also assuming that your system is patched to the latest levels of the OS to avoid any vulnerabilities that may come from the JPEG being “opened”.
Andy
about 4 years ago
I have all my files run through our hardware gateway for signatures – I am sure our readers aren’t this secure at home so be advised the above work-a-round will get you up and running with a security risk – watch who you open messages from – and don’t use the preview pane for now.
Stay tuned boys and girls and if anyone else has a solution please let us know. We are closing in on our 500,000 hit!
about 3 years ago
Fred, this will show all images in Outlook. Does "Right click on the boxes and download the pictures" option still work ?
about 3 years ago
No does not show them except for after this fix. I had given up on it until now! Thanks again
about 3 years ago
This will also work for older versions of Outlook. I had one user with Office 2003 who could never display images in email signatures, and for the life of me I couldn't find any security setting that was preventing this.
In 2003 there is no existing registry key, but if you create one in HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0CommonBlockHTTPImages
as a Dword, and set the value to 0 (the default), and then reboot it works like a champ.
about 3 years ago
Thanks Joe – I wonder if it is backwards compatible with Office 2000 or XP as well.
about 3 years ago
Probably at least with office XP (M$ programmers tend to stick to the same registry entries). Next time I replace a computer with Office XP on it I'll try it out before I wipe it.
about 3 years ago
The reason you would want to keep HTTP images blocked is that otherwise it’s possible (easy) to tell when you view the message, and therefore whether or not your address is one worth sending more spam to.
about 2 years ago
There is another alternative fix/issue. I did NOT have the blockHTTP path as listed in the fix above. The user I was having an issue with goes through a crapload of image attached emails, so there is a folder that saves all images downloaded by outlook. This folder has a limit to what it can contain. You must remove the contents of this folder in order to download more images.
RegEdit:
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Office/12.0/Outlook/Security/OutlookSecureTempFolder
Copy and paste the value path into your browser and clear contents of the folder.
about 2 years ago
I too do not have the BlockHTTPImages registry entry.
I have also cleared the Temp Folder contents.
I also have the Trust Center ‘Don’t download pictures automatically…..’ unticked
And still I have no images appearing in html emails.
about 2 years ago
What is your OS? And did you try the suggestion by Jonathan or JoeG above?
about 2 years ago
Yes to bot JoeG & Jonathan suggestions.
I use Vista Ultimate 32bit Sp1