when i recieve an e-mail that is a video file, it wont open it.. it tells me
to create an association in my folder options control panel...,That all
sounds fine but it doesnt tell me how to do it! ive looked everywhere in my
folder control panel and cant seem to work out how to do it, could someone
PLEASE HELP!
That message is a very poor and misleading one. Almost invariably,
when you get that message, it simply means that you don't have
installed an appropriate program to run that particular kind of file.
The reason the misleading message is displayed is that when you
install a program, the installation creates something called an
"association" between the program and the extension (the last three
characters of the file name, after the dot) or extensions that the
program is designed to handle.
So, for example, if you install Microsoft Excel, an association will
be created between Excel and the extension .xls. The result is that if
you try to open an .xls file, Windows will look at that association
and know that it should use Excel to open it.
If it can't find an association for .xls files, it's either because
Excel or some compatible program hasn't been installed, or the
association has somehow become lost or damaged. So it displays the
message it does, assuming that the association is missing, although
it's far more likely that you just don't have the right program
installed.
So, almost certainly, you simply don't have the right program
installed to view the file you received. For more specific help, tell
us what the extension of the file is.
By the way, I'll add my customary warning about opening such
attachments:
Opening such attachments is 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 never open attachments at all, except from a *very* few
trusted sources, and then only when I'm expecting them.
