opening files from my email from non vista users

[ash]

ok. someone please help me. when it comes to computers i have no idea what i
am doing. here is my situation. i just bougt a new computer and it has vista
basic. i am trying to open an attachment on an email from someone who does
not have vista operating system. in short the attachment won't open and is
trying to open using note pad thus all i get is a bunch of symbols. how do i
fix this problem so that my computer using vista will open attachements from
people who do not have vista. so thanks for your help.

 

[Not Me]

what type of file is it?
usually it will be formatted as filename.doc or such?
..doc is a document, .jpg or .gif is a picture.
Once we know what type of file it is, we may be able to tell you what
program to use to open it.

 

[Max]

Vista has nothing to do with it. Most likely is that you do not have the
application installed that the attachment is originally from (such as a Word
document, etc). What type of file is it?

 

[Peter Foldes]

We need to know the file extension to tell you how to open it.

Can you post the complete file name here so as we can see the extension. (i.e. xxxxx.***)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

ok. someone please help me. when it comes to computers i have no idea what i
am doing. here is my situation. i just bougt a new computer and it has vista
basic. i am trying to open an attachment on an email from someone who does
not have vista operating system.

What operating system you or your correspondent has is irrelevant. The
only issue is that you need to have installed the same application
your correspondent used to create it, or a compatible application.

in short the attachment won't open and is
trying to open using note pad thus all i get is a bunch of symbols.

Unless it's a text file (highly unlikely from what you've described),
Notepad is the wrong application to open it with. The result you got
is what should be expected.

how do i
fix this problem so that my computer using vista will open attachements from
people who do not have vista. so thanks for your help.

Again, this has nothing to do with Vista. The problem is almost
certainly that you don't have an appropriate program installed to open
it.

The first thing to do is to determine what kind of file it is. Then we
can help by telling you what program (or programs) can open it. You
identify the file type by its extension (the last characters of the
file name, after the dot). What is its extension?

Bear in mind that if your correspondent created the file using some
commercial program, it's possible that the only way to open it will be
to buy a copy of that program. For some files, there may be free
viewers available, but that isn't always the case.

 

[ash]

wow..thank you so much...all of you..i didn't know this
its a .doc
my computer is trying to open the file in wordpad.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

wow..thank you so much...all of you..i didn't know this
its a .doc
my computer is trying to open the file in wordpad.

That's a Microsoft Word document file, and to open it you need either
Word or a compatible program.

If you want Word, you need to buy it, either alone, as part of
Microsoft Office, or, most inexpensively, as part of Microsoft Works
*Suite* (not regular Microsoft Works). Alternatively, you can acquire
another less expensive or even free word processor, such as that
included with WordPerfect Office, StarOffice, or OpenOffice. Any of
those will let you open .doc files, however, some formatting might be
lost.

You can also download a free Word viewer from Microsoft at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...88-7CFA-457A-9AEC-F4F827F20CAC&displaylang=en
or http://tinyurl.com/2pgrpz That will let you view, but not modify or
create .doc files.

By the way, I also want to point out the following: 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.

So open this attachment at your own risk. My own practice is not to
open E-mail attachments at all. I make exceptions only for a *very*
few trusted people (trusted to know what they are doing, not just
trusted to be free of malicious intent).

 

[MyronH]

Microsoft does have viewers for their Office products, to include Word. You
won't be able to create or edit documents, but you will be able to read the
attachments you receive. Plus, the viewers are free downloads.