I cannot open a .dat file

[Guest]

My friend emailed me a Word file (*.doc file) to me, but the file Ive saved
from the attachment in Outlook Express has a .dat extension. I cant seem to
open it in wordpad. notepad or Work's wordprocessor, or even with Wordperfect
Office 12 (I dont have Word). Is my friend wrong about what he has sent?

 

[TF]

It has something to do with an overactive Anti Virus checker somewhere -
probably at your ISP but may be a corporate AV scanner doing this.. Get the
sender to ZIP the file with WinZip or similar utility first. That should
stop the AV from messing with it.

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://word.mvps.org/

: My friend emailed me a Word file (*.doc file) to me, but the file Ive
saved
: from the attachment in Outlook Express has a .dat extension. I cant seem
to
: open it in wordpad. notepad or Work's wordprocessor, or even with
Wordperfect
: Office 12 (I dont have Word). Is my friend wrong about what he has sent?

 

[RWN]

Is the file with the ".dat" extension perhaps "Winmail.dat"?
If so;
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;278061

Also, a "Google" on "winmail.dat" and you'll get tons of hits.