Can't Open or Save Attachments

OS: Windows XP home edition SP2

Outlook Express 6 - 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

I'm not sure when this started, but for some reason I can't open or save
attachments in my email anymore. I first noticed it about a week ago.

The last one I tried to open was a .wmv file that is 320 kb.

When I try to open the attachment I get the following message:

"Windows found that this file is potentially harmful. To help protect your
computer, Windows has blocked access to this file."

When I try to save the attachment I get the following message:

"There was an error saving one or more of the attachments. Please check
your free disk space and try again."

My disk is far from being full and I have the "Do not allow attachments to
be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" box unchecked in the
security page under options in the tools menu item. I'm also running Norton
Anti-virus which was installed as part of Norton Internet Security 2004, but
I have email scanning disabled.

I searched for this on the internet and found other people were having the
same problem, but no one had a solution for it.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

You may have to unblock the attachment with the Attachment Manager.

See this KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=883260

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

~IB-CA~"Al Swearengen" wrote
in message news:dqUHd.7509$hC2.5397@trndny04...
OS: Windows XP home edition SP2

Outlook Express 6 - 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

I'm not sure when this started, but for some reason I can't open or
save attachments in my email anymore. I first noticed it about a
week ago.

The last one I tried to open was a .wmv file that is 320 kb.

When I try to open the attachment I get the following message:

"Windows found that this file is potentially harmful. To help
protect your computer, Windows has blocked access to this file."

When I try to save the attachment I get the following message:

"There was an error saving one or more of the attachments. Please
check your free disk space and try again."

My disk is far from being full and I have the "Do not allow
attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus"
box unchecked in the security page under options in the tools menu
item. I'm also running Norton Anti-virus which was installed as
part of Norton Internet Security 2004, but I have email scanning
disabled.

I searched for this on the internet and found other people were
having the same problem, but no one had a solution for it.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
You may have to unblock the attachment with the Attachment Manager.

See this KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=883260

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

~IB-CA~"Al Swearengen" wrote in
message news:dqUHd.7509$hC2.5397@trndny04...

Thanks for responding, Bruce. Sorry I didn't mention this, but I have read
that article. Are you refering to this excerpt from the article:

You can open a blocked file from a known source if you want to. To open a
blocked file, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the blocked file, and then click properties.
2. In the general tab, click unblock.

When I right-click on the attachment name after clicking on the paper clip
icon no pop-up menu appears.

If I double-click the email to open it in its own window and then right
click the attachment there is no properties selection in the pop-up menu.
If I select save as... from this menu I get "The command failed to execute"
message.

Any other ideas?


OS: Windows XP home edition SP2

Outlook Express 6 - 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

I'm not sure when this started, but for some reason I can't open or save
attachments in my email anymore. I first noticed it about a week ago.

The last one I tried to open was a .wmv file that is 320 kb.

When I try to open the attachment I get the following message:

"Windows found that this file is potentially harmful. To help protect
your computer, Windows has blocked access to this file."

When I try to save the attachment I get the following message:

"There was an error saving one or more of the attachments. Please check
your free disk space and try again."

My disk is far from being full and I have the "Do not allow attachments
to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" box unchecked in
the security page under options in the tools menu item. I'm also running
Norton Anti-virus which was installed as part of Norton Internet Security
2004, but I have email scanning disabled.

I searched for this on the internet and found other people were having
the same problem, but no one had a solution for it.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:dqUHd.7509$hC2.5397@trndny04...
OS: Windows XP home edition SP2

Outlook Express 6 - 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

I'm not sure when this started, but for some reason I can't open or save
attachments in my email anymore. I first noticed it about a week ago.

The last one I tried to open was a .wmv file that is 320 kb.

When I try to open the attachment I get the following message:

"Windows found that this file is potentially harmful. To help protect
your computer, Windows has blocked access to this file."

When I try to save the attachment I get the following message:

"There was an error saving one or more of the attachments. Please check
your free disk space and try again."

My disk is far from being full and I have the "Do not allow attachments to
be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" box unchecked in the
security page under options in the tools menu item. I'm also running
Norton Anti-virus which was installed as part of Norton Internet Security
2004, but I have email scanning disabled.

I searched for this on the internet and found other people were having the
same problem, but no one had a solution for it.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks



Hmmmm... Am I the only one seeing this problem?

"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:HyCId.13427$qu2.1335@trndny08...

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Al,

In ToolsOptionsSecurity, see if the first radio button is checked
rather than the second.

I had the second radio button selected, so I selected the first one. I
tried running the attachment and saving the attachment. Still having the
same problem.

Tried closing OE and opening it again and still having the same problem
with the attachment.

Also try compacting your folders:

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
open. Then: FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online in the
Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders. Don't touch anything until the
compacting is completed.

I tried this and still having the same problem.

If that doesn't fix it, make a new post since this is two days old. I
thought someone else would have had a suggestion by now.

I googled this problem and have found that I am not the only one with this
problem, but nobody has a solution. I was hoping to find a solution on
usenet. Oh well, thanks for your help, Bruce. I will continue to check
back for any other other suggestions. In the mean time I will experiment
with some things and if I find a solution I will post it here.

Thanks again.

Update:

Tried opening and saving attachment after clean boot (disable everything in
msconfig except microsoft services) - still fails.
Tried opening and saving attachment in safe mode - still fails.
Tried opening and saving attachments with everything in msconfig disabled
except essential services - still fails. After this I had to reactivate
windows XP (what's up with that?)

I forwarded the email and attachment to a yahoo email account and downloaded
the attachment from there and ran it - that works so it's not the attachment
causing the problem.

After that reactivation thing I'm too frustrated to continue. I'm going to
allow myself to settle down before attempting anything else.

--
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck
is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
-Ernst Jan Plugge

Is it possible that this happened after downloading SP2? If your
anti-virus was running at the time, you could have a bad install. If
you think that may be the case, remove and re-install SP2. Do both
operations with your A/V disabled and all windows closed.

How to remove SP2:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;875350

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~



"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:M1EId.15578$Vx2.12606@trndny01...

"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:HyCId.13427$qu2.1335@trndny08...

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Al,

In ToolsOptionsSecurity, see if the first radio button is
checked rather than the second.

I had the second radio button selected, so I selected the first
one. I tried running the attachment and saving the attachment.
Still having the same problem.

Tried closing OE and opening it again and still having the same
problem with the attachment.

Also try compacting your folders:

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no
folders are open. Then: FileWork Offline (or double click Working
Online in the Status Bar).
FileFolderCompact all folders. Don't touch anything until the
compacting is completed.

I tried this and still having the same problem.

If that doesn't fix it, make a new post since this is two days
old. I thought someone else would have had a suggestion by now.

I googled this problem and have found that I am not the only one
with this problem, but nobody has a solution. I was hoping to find
a solution on usenet. Oh well, thanks for your help, Bruce. I
will continue to check back for any other other suggestions. In
the mean time I will experiment with some things and if I find a
solution I will post it here.

Thanks again.

Update:

Tried opening and saving attachment after clean boot (disable
everything in msconfig except microsoft services) - still fails.
Tried opening and saving attachment in safe mode - still fails.
Tried opening and saving attachments with everything in msconfig
disabled except essential services - still fails. After this I had
to reactivate windows XP (what's up with that?)

I forwarded the email and attachment to a yahoo email account and
downloaded the attachment from there and ran it - that works so it's
not the attachment causing the problem.

After that reactivation thing I'm too frustrated to continue. I'm
going to allow myself to settle down before attempting anything
else.

--
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck
is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
-Ernst Jan Plugge

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Is it possible that this happened after downloading SP2? If your
anti-virus was running at the time, you could have a bad install. If you
think that may be the case, remove and re-install SP2. Do both operations
with your A/V disabled and all windows closed.

How to remove SP2:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;875350

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~


In that article it says that after removing SP2 that I should perform a
system restore to a point before SP2 was installed. I can't do that because
I installed SP2 sometime last Spring and I don't have a restore point that
goes far back.

From what others have reported, that shouldn't matter. Skip that part
and re-install with the A/V off.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:kn6Jd.26412$Vn2.13700@trndny06...

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Is it possible that this happened after downloading SP2? If your
anti-virus was running at the time, you could have a bad install.
If you think that may be the case, remove and re-install SP2. Do
both operations with your A/V disabled and all windows closed.

How to remove SP2:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;875350

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~


In that article it says that after removing SP2 that I should
perform a system restore to a point before SP2 was installed. I
can't do that because I installed SP2 sometime last Spring and I
don't have a restore point that goes far back.

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
From what others have reported, that shouldn't matter. Skip that part and
re-install with the A/V off.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

I uninstall SP2. Then I unistalled Norton SystemWorks and Internet
Security. I could open and save the attachment just fine. I reinstalled SP2
and now I still can't open or save the attachment. It's the same exact
problem I was having before.


"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:kn6Jd.26412$Vn2.13700@trndny06...

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Is it possible that this happened after downloading SP2? If your
anti-virus was running at the time, you could have a bad install. If you
think that may be the case, remove and re-install SP2. Do both
operations with your A/V disabled and all windows closed.

How to remove SP2:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;875350

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~


In that article it says that after removing SP2 that I should perform a
system restore to a point before SP2 was installed. I can't do that
because I installed SP2 sometime last Spring and I don't have a restore
point that goes far back.

Hi Al,

I'm hoping to get someone to help out with this. So they are aware,
please post the original problem and everything you have tried so far.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:iQRJd.10885$hC2.7312@trndny04...

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
From what others have reported, that shouldn't matter. Skip that
part and re-install with the A/V off.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~

I uninstall SP2. Then I unistalled Norton SystemWorks and Internet
Security. I could open and save the attachment just fine. I
reinstalled SP2 and now I still can't open or save the attachment.
It's the same exact problem I was having before.


"Al Swearengen" wrote in message
news:kn6Jd.26412$Vn2.13700@trndny06...

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Is it possible that this happened after downloading SP2? If your
anti-virus was running at the time, you could have a bad install.
If you think that may be the case, remove and re-install SP2. Do
both operations with your A/V disabled and all windows closed.

How to remove SP2:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;875350

Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - (IE/OE)
~IB-CA~


In that article it says that after removing SP2 that I should
perform a system restore to a point before SP2 was installed. I
can't do that because I installed SP2 sometime last Spring and I
don't have a restore point that goes far back.