Most everyone likes to have their systems auto complete or auto resolve names of recipients as they type. It makes for a more productive working environment.

But sometimes your end users will find that auto complete is not working. Other users might be typing a partial name in the To: field but when they hit the tab button it will take a couple seconds or so to auto resolve the recipient’s name.

For the users that are having the problem of auto resolve not working it can be a more than frustrating experience. For those users, an administrator can have them manually prompt for an auto resolve by trying the Check Name button or by pressing the CTRL+K keystroke sequence.

Another area of potential trouble is the cache that is used with the automatic completion mechanism. When names are resolved as users type in recipient names there is a nickname list that is automatically generated and maintained by Outlook. This nickname list is used for both the automatic name checking and the automatic completion. The nickname list is a collection of all the email addresses that have been used for sending email that show up on the To, Cc or Bcc fields. This is one of the first locations that Outlook checks for name checking and name resolutions.

When your users are experiencing name completion problems or problems with name checking it can be caused by a corrupted name cache. Such problems can be manifested by misidentifications of recipients resulting in name resolutions which look like amalgams of company mergers and acquisitions. Other miscues can include incorrect recipient’s names being produced or, worse, messages actually being sent to unintended recipients.

If you are using Microsoft Windows XP and you suspect that the nickname cache is corrupted you can try to clean it out by following the steps outlined below. Make sure that Outlook is not running before starting the steps below. Continue reading Troubleshooting Name Checking and Resolving Issues