Can't open Powerpoint attachments

  • Thread starter Thread starter DukeSFC62
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DukeSFC62

Trying to help my brother-in-law open attachments that are Microsoft
Powerpoint slideshows. His system sees the attachments as Outlook
Express rather than Powerpoint. When he forwards the email to me, my
system doesn't have any problems with the Powerpoint attachments.
 
DukeSFC62 said:
Trying to help my brother-in-law open attachments that are Microsoft
Powerpoint slideshows. His system sees the attachments as Outlook
Express rather than Powerpoint. When he forwards the email to me, my
system doesn't have any problems with the Powerpoint attachments.
Click to expand...

Has he actually got anything installed that will view or open PowerPoint
documents?
 
DukeSFC62 said:
Trying to help my brother-in-law open attachments that are Microsoft
Powerpoint slideshows. His system sees the attachments as Outlook
Express rather than Powerpoint. When he forwards the email to me, my
system doesn't have any problems with the Powerpoint attachments.
Click to expand...



If he's reading his E-mail in Outlook Express, the attachments are
attachments to a message he sees in Outlook Express. So he calls them
Outlook Express attachments, and that's in a sense what they are.

But in another sense, these attachments are pps files, PowerPoint slide
shows. His inability to open them has nothing to do with their being Outlook
Express attachments, but rather with his not having an appropriate program
installed to open them.

You apparently have PowerPoint (or Microsoft Office, which includes
PowerPoint) installed on your computer, so you have no trouble opening them.
He apparently doesn't. However he can download the free Microsoft PowerPoint
viewer at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...27-43AB-4F24-90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

or http://tinyurl.com/5y728

Once he downloads and installs that, he will be able to open these
attachments.

*However* (and it's a big however), both you and he should realize that
opening attachments received in E-mail messages is one of the most dangerous
things you can do with your computer. Many attachments can carry viruses or
other malware, and if you open them, you can easily get infected.

You often see advice not to open attachments from people you don't know. I
think that that's one of the most dangerous pieces of advice you see around,
because it implies that it's safe to do the opposite--open attachments from
friends and relatives. But many viruses spread by sending themselves to
everyone in the infected party's address book, so attachments received from
friends are perhaps the *most* risky to open.

Even if the attachment legitimately comes from a friend, it can contain a
virus. I'm not suggesting that a friend is likely to send you a virus on
purpose, but if the friend is infected without realizing it, any attachment
he sends you is likely to also be infected.

Personally I never open executable attachments at all, except from a *very*
few trusted sources, and then only when I'm expecting them.
 
DukeSFC62 wrote:
-
Trying to help my brother-in-law open attachments that are Microsoft
Powerpoint slideshows. His system sees the attachments as Outlook
Express rather than Powerpoint. When he forwards the email to me, my
system doesn't have any problems with the Powerpoint attachments.-



If he's reading his E-mail in Outlook Express, the attachments are
attachments to a message he sees in Outlook Express. So he calls them
Outlook Express attachments, and that's in a sense what they are.

But in another sense, these attachments are pps files, PowerPoint slide

shows. His inability to open them has nothing to do with their being
Outlook
Express attachments, but rather with his not having an appropriate
program
installed to open them.
.
.
.
*However* (and it's a big however), both you and he should realize that

opening attachments received in E-mail messages is one of the most
dangerous
things you can do with your computer. --

Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User

Please reply to the newsgroup
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. My brother-in-law inadvertently found a way to
open the Powerpoint files. When he saves the attachments to his
Documents folder, the attachments save as email files. However, when
he accidently saved an attachment to his Photographs folder, the
attachment saved as a Powerpoint file. He then had no trouble opening
the file. When the two saves are different, I don't know.

DukeSFC62
 
DukeSFC62 said:
Trying to help my brother-in-law open attachments that are Microsoft
Powerpoint slideshows. His system sees the attachments as Outlook
Express rather than Powerpoint. When he forwards the email to me, my
system doesn't have any problems with the Powerpoint attachments.
Click to expand...


Unable to open .PPS attachments directly from Outlook Express
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ppsopen.htm
 
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