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Remove Blocking of Attachments from Outlook Express 6.0

Outlook users should click Here

You have 2 options available to you. You can either allow all attachments or you can selectively allow only certain potentially harmful attachments.

Allow all attachments:

To disable and lose the protection of Outlook Express's security feature:

1) Start Outlook Express. 
2) On the Tools menu, click Options. 
3) Click the Security tab, Uncheck the forth item, which says "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" and then click OK.

NOTE: By default this protective security feature is not turned on, so you may find that it is already unchecked.

You might want to try the second method first, since the above method disables the security protection entirely. 

Selectively allow some attachments:

You first have to turn on Outlook Express's security feature as follows:

1) Start Outlook Express. 
2) On the Tools menu, click Options. 
3) Click the Security tab, Place a checkmark next to the forth item, which says "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" and then click OK.

MODIFY THE UNSAFE FILE LIST 
NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer.

To keep being protected by the Outlook Express file security feature but just remove certain file types from the Internet Explorer unsafe file list:

1) Open Windows Explorer, click Tools on the toolbar and click Folder Options. 
2) Click the File Types tab. 
3) Click the file type that you want to allow, and then click Advanced or Edit. 
4) Uncheck the "Confirm open after download" check box and click OK. 

NOTE: Some file types will not allow you to uncheck the box or the file type may not even be on the list. For example, by default, the Internet Explorer 6 unsafe file list includes .exe files, and you cannot remove this file type from the list.

I find Outlook Express to be too aggressive in what it blocks. Some file types that I let in are bmp, doc, eml (listed under Outlook Express Mail Message), gif, htm, html, jpe, jpg, jpeg, pdf, rtf, tif, tiff, txt, url (listed under Internet Shortcut) and URL-HyperText Transfer Protocol (Listed in N/A section). Keep in mind that a website url (link) may take you to a webpage that will install unwanted programs on your PC. So whenever you receive e-mail with attachments or website links, you should be expecting that e-mail.

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Last modified: June 19, 2014