Outlook 2007 problem, anyone any ideas?

[ServersandSpares]

Over the last three weeks, if I'm attaching a .csv file to an email, the attachment is being removed as dangerous content, and I get the following message:

The original e-mail attachment "winmail.dat"
was believed to be infected by a virus and has been replaced by this warning message.
If you wish to receive a copy of the *infected* attachment, please
e-mail helpdesk and include the whole of this message
in your request. Alternatively, you can call them, with
the contents of this message to hand when you call.

At Fri Feb 20 17:43:11 2009 the virus scanner said:
Could not parse Outlook Rich Text attachment

I get the same message every time. Outlook is set to send in HTML, I've tried changing it and resetting it back to HTML. Our email host is adamant it's a local problem with Outlook, but everything was fine up until the 7th Feb, and the Outlook settings I use have never been changed since I set it up, so not sure where the winmail.dat comes from!
Could it be a glitch from an update run over the last three weeks? The emails are going through Mailscanner. It's driving me nuts!!! grrrr

 

[paultnl]

Probably a security update. Try renaming the file extension i.e. filename.csv to filename.old then ask the recipient to rename it back once received.

 

[trevorwood]

Better still add the file to a Zip archive and then email it. Some (most IME) Exchange servers strip anything that could have macros in, which includes .CSV files.

 

[paultnl]

zip files are often striped now as well.

 

[ozbon]

If you save the file as .txt instead of .csv , do you get the same issues?

Basically, a .csv is just a text file - they'll be processed the same by Excel or whatever - so you should be OK on that score.

 

[ServersandSpares]

I'll try these ideas, thanks all. Seems that it is only happening if I email myself (which I often have to do) which is wierd, although didn't realise this until today.

 

[computer storm]

Hello,

You could also try the following that will allow you to accept the blocked files.

Outlook 2007, outlook 2003,outlook 2002 and outlook 2000 SP3 (but not Outlook 98 or earlier Outlook 2000 versions) allow the user to use a registry key to open up access to blocked attachments. (Always make a backup before editing the registry.) To use this key:

1. Run Regedit, and go to this key:
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security (change 10.0 to 9.0 for Outlook 2000 SP3 or to 11.0 for Outlook 2003, 12.0 for Outlook 2007 )
2. Under that key, add a new string value named Level1Remove.
3. For the value for Level1Remove, enter a semicolon-delimited list of file extensions. For example, entering this:
   
   .mdb;.url
   
   would unblock Microsoft Access files and Internet shortcuts. Note that the use of a leading dot was not previously required, however, new security patches may require it. If you are using "mdb;url" format and extensions are blocked, add a dot to each extension. Note also that there is not a space between extensions.

 

[ServersandSpares]

Thank you computer Storm, Most of that went over my head but I'll be able to follow your instructions I think Will give it a go as not resolved though, so thank you

 

[Bruce_Andrews]

Or just use another e-mail client?

 

[ServersandSpares]

Or just use another e-mail client?

Couldn't fix it, although I'm convinced the problem was with Mailscanner and not Outlook, which is why I couldn't fix it, but yes, I gave up and moved completely and am now as of today using Thunderbird, just having a few withdrawal symptoms but I'm sure it won't take me long to get over them

 

[Bruce_Andrews]

... but I'm sure it won't take me long to get over them

OK, that's long enough.

Thunderbirds are go?

(sorry, very corny and shows my age )

 

[ServersandSpares]

haha, funny Thing is it's taking me longer than I thought to get over IE.... sad I know. Liking Thunderbird except for the crappy search facility, but I'm sticking with it as not had one problem yet.

 

[The IT Dept]

See the Microsoft Help Doc at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958012/en-us

That does tell you to make changes to the Registry. Don't do this if you aren't confident.

Also, ensure you have all Microsoft Updates on your PC - including Office Service Packs. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

 

[happyoutdoors]

Hi,
We have used Thunderbird & Firefox for several years, never looked back. You should try looking at some of the add-ons, that might help enhance your experience.
Since we loaded 'Ad-Block Plus' on Firefox I don't think we have seen a pop-up ad for 2 years, hooray!

Geoffrey

 

[ServersandSpares]

See the Microsoft Help Doc at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958012/en-us

That does tell you to make changes to the Registry. Don't do this if you aren't confident.

Also, ensure you have all Microsoft Updates on your PC - including Office Service Packs. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Thanks very much for this - it sorted my problem, even though the SP was installed.


As I'm now using Thunderbid and Mozilla/Firefox for the most part, I wondered if I should be looking for anything in particular to solve the problem of Firefox running extremely slowly compared to IE7 which is almost instant? In comparison, Firefox will take up to 25 secs to open a page?