"Preview" versus "Opening" email.

[Guest]

I have been under the assumption that "previewing" email (in the preview
pane) is NOT "opening" that email. That I can "preview" safety - no hazard
from virus, trojan, etc., content, and can delete the email - WITHOUT ever
opening it.

Double clicking is (1) "opening" the email and (2) bringing it to full
screen. "Opening" the email is opening myself to any malicious content.
Previewing is not.

I can highlight and delete in preview screen without ever opening an email.

Correct?

Our one son insists that if you "download" the email from the server into
Outlook, or Outlook Express, you have exposed yourself to whatever is, or
could be, in that email - in the body or in any attachment - it is IN your
computer.

I have disagreed. Who is correct?

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

You are. True, you may have downloaded a piece of malware, but that malware
needs you to open it, launch it, execute it, or some other operation to
bring it to life; reading the host message in the Preview Pane is NOT one of
those operations.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com