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How do I change my internet security setting to medium?

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Summary: Changing your internet security to medium can be done easily, but first make sure that it's really safe for you to do so.

Some e-mail will not open because they say my security is set on high and needs to be set on medium. How do I do that?

Before I tell you, let's make sure you want to.

What it boils down to is this: with the security setting set to medium, the email you are viewing which is most probably formatted as an HTML message may contain things that could be harmful to your computer. Like viruses. That's why many email and other programs will now default to a high level of security.

Do you trust the sender and do you know it's from them?

If so, then in Control Panel, Internet Options, click on the Security tab. Click on the Internet zone. You should now see either a sliding control that will let you select the level of security for that zone anywhere from High to Low. If you see "Custom - To change the settings click Custom Level" instead, then click the Default Level button. This should restore the sliding control that will let you select your level of security.

Depending on your email program, you may have to change the settings for your "Local intranet" zone as well. In any case, you will probably need to exit and restart your email program for the changes to be recognized. And finally, any changes you've made here will also apply to Internet Explorer.

If you want to see the email without changing your security settings, then depending on your email program you may save it to disk and view it in something like notepad, or instruct your email program to treat the email as "plain text". It may look like a lot of gibberish around the actual content of the email, but that will at least allow you to determine what's inside.

Related:

Article C2089 - June 30, 2004

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Recent Comments
3 Comments

trying to download itunes, but my security setting won't let me. it says it is set to high. when i try to change it, it won't let me go below medium?

Posted by: anthony jacob at February 2, 2009 10:54 AM

There seems to be a bug i do this and it goes back to the original settings every time.

Posted by: Dave at April 5, 2009 7:08 AM

These instructions didn't work. My computer said it had to stay at medium and did not let me even move it lower or higher.

Posted by: Al at May 24, 2009 8:25 PM

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