How to overcome "Windows has blocked access to these files to help protect your computer"

[Fishman]

I get this all the time from my technicians. This has nothing to do
with your email client, (Outlook, Outlook Express). It has to do with
the Security Center for XP, Service pack 2. You cannot turn off this
option for good, but you can open blocked items one at a time. Here is
how.

1. Open the email with the attachment.
2. Right click the attachment and choose Copy.
3. Get back to the Desktop, right-click and choose Paste.
4. On the pasted attachment, right click and choose Properties.
5. Ayt the bottom of the page, there will be an option for unblocking
the program.

This works with zipped files as well as batch, EXE's, DLL's, etc. '

Hope this helps,

Michael K Powell, (Fish)
MCP, A+, DCSE, AAS EET

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Have you tried the following?

1. Start Outlook Express.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click the Security tab, click to clear the "Do not allow attachments to be
saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" check box under
Virus Protection, and then click OK.

Applicable Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:

Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q329570


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| I get this all the time from my technicians. This has nothing to do
| with your email client, (Outlook, Outlook Express). It has to do with
| the Security Center for XP, Service pack 2. You cannot turn off this
| option for good, but you can open blocked items one at a time. Here is
| how.
|
| 1. Open the email with the attachment.
| 2. Right click the attachment and choose Copy.
| 3. Get back to the Desktop, right-click and choose Paste.
| 4. On the pasted attachment, right click and choose Properties.
| 5. Ayt the bottom of the page, there will be an option for unblocking
| the program.
|
| This works with zipped files as well as batch, EXE's, DLL's, etc. '
|
| Hope this helps,
|
| Michael K Powell, (Fish)
| MCP, A+, DCSE, AAS EET

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I get this all the time from my technicians. This has nothing to do
with your email client, (Outlook, Outlook Express).

Not true.

It has to do with
the Security Center for XP, Service pack 2.

Not true.

You cannot turn off this
option for good,

Not true. See below.

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. 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 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..."

 

[Fish]

I understand the settings adjustments above, but we get customers who
have this issue with Outlook and Outlook Exress and changing the
setting in OE does not resolve the issue. I should have been more
clear. The reason I posted this is because the fix suggested does not
always fix this issue. My post is caused by SP2 security center, not
Outlook or OE.

I have over 400 techs in my charge and see this quite often. The step
above for OE is valid. The step I posted is for if that one does not
work or when using Outlook.