In
pob said:
I have been sent attachments that have not been allowed
to be accesed.It tells me that oe has stopped harmful
attachments.I know the attachments to be from reliable
sources.What can I do?
Starting with SP1, Outlook Express does this by default, for any
file type which *can* contain a virus. It's not a virus checker,
doesn't actually check the attachments, and this doesn't mean
that there actually is a virus there.
Such attachments *are* very risky--reliable sources or not. 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.
Personally I think what Outlook Express does is good; I never
open executable attachments at all, except from a *very* few
trusted sources, and then only when I'm expecting them. But if
you want to remove this safeguard, it's easy to do so: go to
Tools | Options, and on the security tab, uncheck "Do not allow
attachments..."
