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Remove Blocking of Attachments from Outlook 9X/00/02

Outlook Express users should click Here

If you have applied Office/Outlook Service Pack 2, Service Pack 3 or a recent security update patch to Outlook 9X, 2000 or 2002 (not Outlook Express), then you have probably noticed that potentially harmful e-mail attachments such as those with the file extensions .exe, .bat, .vbs are blocked. You have the attachment but Outlook won't let you get to it.

You can export your mail and import it into Outlook Express and you'll be able to get the attachment. But boy, what a pain in the butt. The senders can also zip the file or change the file's extension before they send the attachment. Below are instructions to allow all or just some of the attachments.

Instructions for Outlook 97,98 and Outlook 2000 Service Pack 2:

NOTE: For Outlook 2000 users, if you have installed Office/Outlook Service Pack 3 (Available Here), then you can use either the method described in the next paragraph or you can follow the instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q829982.

Using a free hex editor named XVI32, open the file OUTLLIB.DLL found in the Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office folder, and edit the list of file extensions. There are 40 blocked file extensions separated by semicolons. You can do a search for the text string "ade;adp" (without the quotes) for example. You will see all 40 extensions being blocked right there. Now carefully change each extension to aaa;aab;aac;aad;aae etc. Use whatever letters you wish but do not use legitimate file extensions. Do not just delete any of the extensions since Outlook checks the byte count of the file when it starts. Note that two of the extensions (vb & js) are 2 letters instead of the usual 3 letters. You may just want to edit some of the extensions to allow only some files through. I suggest backing up the original OUTLLIB.DLL file before you do any editing.

Click this link to get the free XVI32 hex editor.

Instructions for Outlook 2002/XP and Outlook 2000 Service Pack 3:

Follow the instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q829982.

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Last modified: June 19, 2014