Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

How do I force Outlook to open "potentially unsafe attachments" that I know are ok?

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter

Home » Microsoft Office » Microsoft Outlook
Home » Video Tips

Comments

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

Comment Page:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4 

Level1Remove does make the attachments visible but it's not designed to treat them as safe. Instead, you are prompted to save them before they can be opened. I've done a fair amount of web browsing and searching and can find no way around the forced savings. Americans are such lousey savers it's probably a good idea. Even so, I still find it obnoxious but I never was the lowest common denominator.

Posted by: Vandy at September 30, 2004 8:48 AM

I have the same problem as a couple of others. I did the regedit, which I have done for a couple of previous versions. But I still can't open JPGs. The only options offered are "Save to disk" or "Cancel".

This is a real pain and I hope someone can find a fix. I don't usually want to save any of the pics, just view them and delete the email. And I know that jpgs can now spread a virus, but I am willing to take that chance.

Posted by: Ron at October 21, 2004 5:06 AM

I was having this same, really irritating, problem as well. Something said in an earlier post made me think of a possible solution that worked!

When Alan said he didn't have .ppt in the list Outlook opened this file with no problem. So...I just removed all the entries in that line, but left the Level 1 Remove change.

Everything opens just fine now! Geeze, Microsoft trying to save me from myself is almost more than I can stand! LOL Hope this helps others.

Posted by: Rita Hoeffner at October 27, 2004 7:31 AM

I am getting same result as Alan even after regedit, I saw Rita's post and wiped out all entries but left the Level1Remove there and still doesn't open them automatically. If someone comes across a fix PLEASE POST IT! :)

Posted by: Rose at April 14, 2005 11:45 AM

Hi all -

I had the same frustration as Rose. I made all the REGEDIT changes, DLd a few "tools", but nothing. What I DID notice that .jpg, .jpeg, etc,. files were NOT listed in either the MS KB article's Level 1 (unsafe) list. Aha....

Looking at this article more closely:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829982

I realized that .jpg files are Level _2_ files. That is, they are not "unsafe" (just plain _blocked_), BUT they still force you to save to disk.

So, the solution: Using the same procedure to add "Level1Remove", add another registry key, called "Level2Remove" (no quotes), and enter the .jpg;.jpeg, etc extensions. Worked for me! (XPPro SP2, Outlook 2003).

Posted by: Bruce at April 18, 2005 1:38 PM

To fix the forced saving of zip files in Outlook 2003: in the Level1Remove you need to REMOVE the .ZIP value from the list of file extensions!

Doesn't seem logical eh? Well for some reason it worked for me.. hope this help some other folks too.

Posted by: Dean at April 21, 2005 3:04 AM

I had the same problem.
Entered both level1remove and level2remove and left them blank.

BINGO!!! Can open attachments!
Thank F for that!

Posted by: Tosca at June 8, 2005 2:10 AM

You may also be interested in downloading a shareware program called Outlook Picture Viewer which lets you look at multiple pictures with your own viewer directly out of Outlook. This is much better than having to open each individually when you get a group of pictures. Thanks for the tip about clearing the Level1 and Level2 entries. Now I can open anything!

Posted by: Owen at June 10, 2005 5:13 AM

The reason you can open your *.jpg files after you remove them from the level1remove string is, I believe, they aren't level 1 files to begin with. Putting them in that string makes them level 2 files, but if they aren't in the key they are no-level files.

Files that are level 1 to begin with, like *.exe files, can't be accessed if they aren't in the level1remove list. If you add them to a level2remove string you will still not be able to see them, and if you have them in both they will act as they did with only the level1remove string. I don't think there is a "level2remove" string. I think it does nothing and the no-level status of *.jpg files confused the posters above. No matter what I do I can't find a way to make true level 1 files accessible directly from the e-mail.

Posted by: Patrick at June 24, 2005 10:40 AM

Have any of you tried going to the Tools menu then Options selecting the Security tab and unchecking the switch that says

"Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" ???

I had this problem just yesterday and turning of the switch fixed it.

Posted by: Mark at June 28, 2005 1:56 PM
Comment Page:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4 
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Post a Comment

Question? Ask Leo!