Summary: Opening attachments in Hotmail is easy - if Hotmail lets you. If Hotmail doesn't support the attachment type, Hotmail won't open the attachment. Period.
I am unable to open my Hotmail attachments. I am able to open attachments on other email services such as Yahoo, but not Hotmail. Why? (I hope your answer doesn't require me to open an attachment!)
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Nope, no attachment's required.
The "why" is easy. Hotmail is attempting to protect you.
What to do about it, is less obvious, and a lot more cumbersome.
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As we all know by now, viruses and other forms of malware are frequently transmitted by email in the form of attachments.
The problem is that no matter how many times people are told "don't open attachments from untrusted sources" they do so anyway. Or they trust sources that they shouldn't.
It's what some people call the Dancing Bunnies problem; send people an email that promises them dancing bunnies if they open the attachment, and darn it, a bunch of them are going to open that attachment no matter where it came from.
So, Hotmail "solves" this problem by disallowing many types of attachments. If you get an email with attachments that Hotmail does not support, you get this message:
Hotmail has permanently blocked the following potentially unsafe attachment(s)
Note the magical word permanently - you can't open that attachment in Hotmail. Period.
And if you follow through and click on the "More Info..." link next to that warning message, Hotmail's online help is quite explicit:
Hotmail doesn't support all file types. If you send an attachment that Hotmail doesn't support, the e-mail recipient wont be able to download or open the attachment.
I'm assuming that "send" should be "receive" because you most definitely can send attachments from a Hotmail account, no matter what type, as we'll see in a second.
There are two solutions, neither of them pretty:
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Have the sender send the attachment again, with a different name, or as a compressed file. ".zip" files are fine. ".exe" files are not. So if your sender creates a .zip archive of the .exe file that he's trying to send you, that you can save, and then decompress back into it's original form and name.
Heck, just renaming the file is enough. Have the sender rename the .exe file into a .txt file and send that as an attachment. You'll be able to download it, and then rename it back to a .exe.
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Forward the attachment to a non-Hotmail account. Hotmail doesn't mention this approach, but sure enough, even though you can't open the unsupported attachments, you can forward them to a different account on a different service. If that service allows you to open the attachment, you've got it.
Hotmail's goal here is, obviously, to make it difficult to open malware in attachments by accident. You have to take steps of some sort; you have to think about it.
If you go through those steps, and you still get infected? Well, it was your own doing.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - Internet Safety: How do I keep my computer safe on the internet?
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Ask Leo! - Why can't I open attachments in Outlook?
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Ask Leo! - How can I send someone an attachment, if it's blocked by their copy of Outlook?
Article C2860 - December 4, 2006
I'm wondering if it isn't an error in the updated version of hotmail. I have never opening an unknown attachment. Now I cannot open ANY attachments or even photos that I have sent to my hotmail account from my work account. I can't even open old attachments that I have saved in folders.
Posted by: jchristensen at September 7, 2009 8:08 AMThis is GARBAGE!! I TOO NEED my attachments opened! It is NONE of MSN's business if I happen to download a virus, malware, or other crap. I NEED MY DOWNLOADS! WHO ARE YOU?!?!?! GOD?!?!?!
This is a long established email address and I do not want to change it now. What a confusing mess that would be.
Ok, so you think your are God. You are NOT! Change the settings so I can get my email. I do not want IE8 for anything. It was foisted upon us due to no bad acts of us users.
JW
12-Sep-2009
Posted by: JW at September 10, 2009 5:16 AM
I have upgraded my Trend micro to Trend micro Pro. Still can't open attachments. I have hunted down and killed all the dancing bunnies and still...... No attachments. I use Vista and still not impressed. Can we get some help here?
Posted by: tom at September 11, 2009 4:26 PMI had this exact problem suddenly happen on my PC and my laptop. Drove me CRAZY! However, I fixed it, and not by accident. I had just received an update from Trend Micro Internet Security (TMIS). The Hotmail team advised me to turn features off and observe if any change happened. One of the features DEFINITELY changed the result, and I reversed this several times to prove it wasn't an anomaly. TMIS had this new thing called "Protection Against Web Threats", which is in addition to virus protection and firewall. If I have this turned on, I can't open Hotmail attachements. It's not Hotmail's fault. If you have TMIS, try this change.
Posted by: Larry Henrickson at September 17, 2009 11:06 AMTHANK YOU LARRY HENRICKSON!! The TMIS solution, to turn off the "Protection Against Web Threats" feature, instantly solved my problem with Hotmail attachments. I can now view attachments without any problems.
Posted by: Tori Gray at September 18, 2009 9:53 AMThis isn't jsut happening on IE8 ....my IE7 box at work wont let me open hotmail attachments either.
Posted by: Mike at September 21, 2009 5:22 AMThanks Larry! The TMIS worked for me too.
Posted by: Pepampi at September 22, 2009 8:59 PMyou can open it with windows live essentials, but for some reason hotmail still won't open attachments. I don't recommend live essentials, it slows down your computer, bigtime. Please advise
Posted by: jeremy at September 24, 2009 4:12 PMHello everyone,
I have recently the same problem. I couldn't dowbload any attachament or see any picture. I have just fixed the problem by updating my Java version. Now everything goes back to normal.
Posted by: munikes at September 25, 2009 3:23 AMHow do you turn off the Protection Against Web Threats Feature?
Posted by: Arnold at October 18, 2009 11:02 AM