when opening an attachment the message box stating "always open this file
type" shows even when taking the tick out to disable it , so that the
attachments always open


since outlook is ignoring the "donst ask again" is their another way around
this

Try doing it directly in the program itself by saving a copy of it do your desktop - right click on it choose Open With - Program - make sure to selct to always use this program. It should now open. Close it and open it again - to see if the change does take affect.

Now I am not sure if this will have an affect on the existing email attachements you have but it should work for the new ones.

Best Regards
--
Francine Otterson
Microsoft Outlook MVP
President, San Diego Outlook User Group