How to Stop Viruses from Opening in your Email - Outlook Express:

There is a way to set your email program so that it does not open attachments that could potentially be a virus. Here is how you can accomplish this using Outlook Express (ver. 6):

1. From the menu bar, click on Tools, Options

2. Click on the Security tab

3. Under Virus Protection section, click on Restricted Sites Zone, then check "Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me." Also check "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus."

4. Click on Apply, OK

The above settings will not damage or delete your email attachments. When you have the above settings and you try to open an attachment that is unknown to your Outlook Express, you will notice the attachment has a yellow background and you can not click and open it. This means that the attachment is there, but Outlook Express will not allow it to open.

If you need to open that particular attachment, you can always repeat the above steps and un-heck "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened . . . "; this will make the attachment clickable and you can open it. You could always go back and forth between these settings, as you wish.

My personal preference is to keep the option "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened . . . " checked and only uncheck it when I want to open an attachment from a known source, and then go back and recheck it to keep my settings at the highest security.