K.R. Crawford said:
A friend sent me a program via e-mail. But I got the
following message: "Outlook blocked access to the
following potentially unsafe attachments" This is too
stupid for words!!
How do I disable this mindless function? Please respond
to . There is no reason for this
stupidity, and I find it more than irksome!
Actually, it was done for a good reason. Most people open attachments
without thinking.
Second point that needs to be made here is how easily a Google search (or
Microsoft Web page search) could have found this answer a thousand times
over.
Last point that needs to be made is the number of Spam Emails you are about
to receive simply for posting yourt real email address to the hundreds of
thousands of newsgroups out there for the bots to collect and use.
Microsoft is not sending you the attachments (that you will be able to open
after this answer) - so don't ever open those attachments or any others you
are not explicitly expecting.. And even then, have that antivirus software
running!
Read more about this (and how long it has been around) here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570
It also explains ways to turn off the security feature.
You can either turn off this protection
(not recommended without OTHER protection.):
In Outlook Express, under Tools->Options go to the Security tab and take the
checkmark out of the "do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that
could potentially be a virus" box.
Or work around it
(more difficult, but safer, allows you to be more careful about what you
open.):
Open an email containing the attachments that Outlook Express is blocking
access to. The 'OE removed access...' message will be shown as before.
Click the 'Forward' button (as if you are going to forward the email to
another person)
A new message window should open, with the message ready for forwarding.
This is where you would normally enter some new email addresses to which you
would wish to forward the message. (We are not actually going to forward it)
What it also does, at least in cases I have seen, is to show the
attachments, between the 'Subject' line and the 'Message area'.
You should be able to double-click on an attachment and it will give you
the option of opening it, or saving it.
There should also be a check box which says something like: 'Always ask
before opening this type of file'. The checkbox will be ticked.
Do the following: Select 'Open it' and also
(THIS BIT IS THE IMPORTANT STEP!) Un-tick the 'Always ask...' checkbox.
The attached document should now open.
And finally, if the above all worked, and you performed the steps for
opening the attachment, you should now find that if you close and
re-open the email that was causing problems before, you should now be
able to see the attachments!
(I believe that it is the "Always ask" setting that OE uses to determine
whether a particular attachment type should be treated as 'harmful')
It is NOT recommended to use the above steps for accessing executable
attachments, and ALWAYS make sure you have an up-to-date virus checker!
Good Luck!
