TEMP and TMP variables Deleted?

[techyphil]

There has been a problem with SIMS getting an error saying "Error File: "c:\Documents" not found when trying to print time table"

 

Capita's response is "Delete the TEMP and TMP enviromental value for all workstations".

 

Now, I hope im not being stupid, but im sure alot of software will need that to "create temp files on the fly" which is writable by the user. Also installers may check the path exists before installing.

 

I write autoit scripts and that also may use them.

 

I've googled "missing temp and tmp" variables and alot of people have problems updating adobe software etc because it needs those values to be there.

 

Can you please confirm this because they seem to think it will not be a problem. Rather know before I delete it on 160 workstations.

 

Thanks

[PaulBM]

We implemented a script to delete the TMP variable, which fixed Timetable printing...

 

but then, the users we fixed couldn't print from Internet Explorer or Outlook!

 

So be careful, deleting the variable TMP is a SIMS cludge but it breaks other areas.

 

We're just hoping that the update to SIMS to fix this problem is not to delete the TMP variable. They wouldn't be that silly would they?

[srochford]

Don't do it!!

 

Not sure if this is a misunderstanding, however. If they're saying "delete everything in the folder pointed to by the temp/tmp variables" then that seems reasonable. If they're saying "delete the variable and then reset it properly" then perhaps OK but, as you say, lots of things will use that value to work out where they can temporarily store things and if you take it away then lots of things will fall over!

 

Have you imposed any restrictions on users saving to drive C: ? I'm just wondering if the app is trying to access c:\documents and settings\username\local settings\temp but being blocked in some way? It could also be that it's just not coping well with long filenames but I'd have thought that if that were the case that lots of people would have problems with SIMS :-)

 

Is the fault repeatable? If so, on one machine make a folder (say C:\temp) and give everyone write access to it. Set temp and tmp to point to that location (you need to set it at user and machine level; the app should be using user settings but just in case ...) and see what happens. If this helps then you can look at resetting the temp env vars for more users.

[kmount]

The error should have been fixed in the "re-release" of the may upgrade.

[Michael]

I wouldn't delete those folders, but it should be perfectly safe to move or delete the contents.

[techyphil]

Oh, well i've contacted them.

 

They said its still fine to delete dispite the office not printing...

 

They said "it will notice the users environmental value is missing and will use the system temp folder instead".

 

I just wonder if applications that use the users credentials will fail writing to the system temp folder?

 

Still wondering if its safe to do so.