A "fix" for Vista Offline Files

12/31/2008

One of my favorite features of Vista is actually a small one. Offline files. XP had the briefcase and offline files, but they never worked properly. In Vista, offline files "just works". Except when you remove the network share, change credentials, or move the share. In which case a small disaster ensues. Fortunately I have finally found the answer.

When any change is made to the server share, you are stuck with the old files. Using offline files in control panel you can delete some of the locally cached files, but even if no changes are pending it has never let me delete all of them, and thus the partnership remains as a ghost relationship. The ghost relationship then also interferes with setting up a new one. Even disabling and reenabling offline files does not remedy the problem.

The solution is not well known, but there is a registry setting that can be made. After a reboot, Vista will reset all the offline files and delete the local cache. Make sure that if you did have offline changes you have copied them elsewhere. To use this functionality find the key:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC

Make a new key (folder) called Parameters so now you should have:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters

Inside that key make a new DWORD value named FormatDatabase and set the value to 1. Now reboot the computer. Or you can simply download and import this reg file that does it for you.

I've now performed this step nearly a dozen times on various computers to fix the problems caused by network changes and it works perfect!

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