Gibby said:
I get a message in my email stating "OE removed access to the
following unsafe attachments in your mail"--I know they are safe--how
can I receive this message?
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..."
