Can't open email attachments

[Ramo]

Hello - I'm a newbie and not as sharp as I wish I were. I have Win98, Version l, IE 5.5 and Outlook Express 5.

Mail comes in okay. But when I hit attachment and click "open it", the computer tells me "file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in My Compuer by clicking View and then Folder Options." The header for that message reads: C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet File\Content.IE5\WZV3ILKY.

When I get to Folder Options, I click the right tab to get a list of files. None of them seems to me to be appropriate??? So I'm baffled.

Could my EZ antivirus or Zone Alarm firewall be blocking? If so,how do I disable?

Would be grateful for any help! Thanks. Ray.

[david eaton]

Ray. When you open the message in OE, what is the file type of the attachment? This is shown in a box above the message body below the "from" box, as in the pic attached

The fact that you have nothing associated with it suggests a "suspicious" file type, as most common attachments such as pictures will open in Paint, and text files in notepad. Hope your antivirus is up to date!

David

[ErnieK]

Hi there Ramo and welcome.

First
Do you know the program that made the file? (check with the person who sent it to you)

Second
What kind of file is it (is it a graphics file, text file...)?

Have you tried dragging it onto the desktop and then right clicking it, then choose "Open With" to select a program?

Try the following.
Send your self an e-mail with a small text/graphics attachment and see if that opens OK. This will check that you do not have a security setting that stops you from opening attachments.

[Ramo]

Hello Ernie or David -
I'm not sure who's getting this. I told David in another message that I'm confident of the people who are sending me attachments. I've received many of them okay before Microsoft and attbi.com support began tinkering with my registry and identities - in an effort to at least enable me to send emails (after years of trouble free operation)

Ernie - Many of my files come from rootsweb (genealogy research) and some from friends. Never any previous problem. I did as you suggested - dragged attachment onto desktop, right clicked, opened with Word - and read the attachment with no problem. But I don't want to have to go through that operation again and again.

I also sent myself an email and it went through with no problem. So does that mean my security systems are not the problem?

Any other suggestions will be welcomed! Thanks so much to both of you for contributing your time and expertise! Ray.

[Paul Komski]

What is the file extension - the letters after the dot in the filename??

If it is called yourfile.abc then what is abc in this case.

Since it opens with word, all you should need to do is to (create it first if necessary) and associate that particular extension with word.

[kayofcircles]

Ramo : In your first post, the file is listed as "WZV3ILKY" which truthfully is a weird file name, but neither here nor there. No file end...so..go to Start, Settings, Folder Options, View tab. On that page, check the "Show all files" and make sure that the "Hide file extensions for known file types" is unchecked. Then you should be able to see what the WZV3ILKY file type is by the extension, and by glancing through the File Types (associations) tab in Folder Options..should be able to tell if associated properly with Word.

Word of caution, though. I know you said you "trust" the senders, but one time I "tested" my antivirus..and received four emails for the test containing "benign" virus imitations. Two of them were caught by ZoneAlarm, but the other two popped up that message you mentioned about "You have no program associated with this file" blah, blah. And since the extensions on those files were showing as "jpg" which should open in IE (and does, if it's a proper jpg file)...I obviously didn't go past that point, or try to associate a program with them. I am not familar with EZ antivirus..if you copy the file to your Desktop, can you "scan" it before opening it? There are viri out there that spread themselves..without the sender knowing about it, or even knowing that they're infected. Don't know if they can spread through doc files though.

So.. Paul is right..we need the file extension for further troubleshooting.

[Ramo]

Hello Paul and kayofcircles.

I've tried a couple of times to post a "thank you"! But my computer is balky and I may not have gotten through. Tried your way Paul - and I can open attachments via Word.

And I'm alert to the warnings you issued, Kay.

Thank you both so much for leading me out of the woods! You are most kind.

Best regards. Ray.

[kayofcircles]

Excellent! And thanks for posting back..I have been checking on this thread every day to see if you got it.:)