| There are multiple causes of blocked email and attachments. Before changing settings, please consider these:
- You may have SPAM (junk mail) blocked using any of these three methods:
- Did you turn on SpamAssassin at the email server? It blocks certain messages.
- You may have installed a personal SPAM blocker program for the email client on your computer .
- You may be using your email client's SPAM blocking. Outlook Express has this capability .
Note: In the Outlook Express 6 client you can check for blocked addresses and domains.
Look in Tools menu > Message Rules > Blocked Senders List > Blocked Senders tab
You were possibly sent a virus infected attachment. Email server will strip off the attachment to protect you, and it will substitute Virus Warning.txt to tell you what happened and why .
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You practice safe computing and regularly run Windows Update . Recent critical security updates included a patch for Outlook Express 6 that blocks several types of potentially dangerous attachments. The following procedures help you deal with this latter situation. The former situations are not addressed here.
The Problem
After installing IE SP1 or XP SP1 , Outlook Express 6 will lock certain attachments. You cannot save or open them. After following this procedure, you should be able to save attachments. Then you can minimize Outlook Express, find the document and open it. Opening from within the email program is a security risk.
What would I see? How do I know this is the problem? If you see this after double-clicking a message, an attachment was blocked by Outlook Express.
If you click the paper clip in the preview pane and then see a grayed menu like this, an attachment was blocked by Outlook Express.
One Possible Cure - Stopping All Attachment Security Note: This is the easiest but not the only option. See below: “Another Cure - Adjust Settings ....”
1. Apply the latest Windows Update critical security patches: run IE > Tools menu > Windows Update
2. Run Outlook Express 6 3. Tools menu 4. Options 5. Security tab 6. Remove the check from “Do not allow attachments to be saved ....”  
 
The default setting which blocks attachments: The revised setting which allows attachments: 7. Click the OK button.
8. Quit and restart Outlook Express . The changed setting should take effect after the restart.
Another Cure - Adjust Settings while Retaining Attachment Security Note: If you turned off attachment security in the above procedure, these steps are irrelevant. If you want to follow these steps, go back to the previous procedure and check the “Do not allow attachments...” box.
Y ou can block some attachments and release others. In other words, rather than accepting Microsoft's list of suspicious files, you can selectively unblock certain types. Therefore, if Outlook Express blocks Word documents, you can change a setting that will let them through while continuing to block other suspicious types.
1. Start menu 2. In Windows 2000 , choose Settings and then Control Panel .
In Windows XP, you may be able to choose Control Panel without going to Settings first.
3. If you have Windows XP, choose Switch to Classic View (if showing) in the upper left corner.
4. Double-click Folder Options in the Control Panel. 5. Choose the File Types tab and scroll to the type of attachment that should not be blocked. 6. Click the Advanced button. 
7. To block this type of attachment: do check the box for “Confirm open after download.”
- or - To allow this type of attachment: do not check the box.  
 
When checked, this type of attachment is blocked : With no check, this type of attachment is allowed:
8. Click the OK button.
9. Click the OK button again.
10. Close the Control Panel.
1 1. Restart Outlook Express . Attachments of this type, which had been blocked, may now be available in messages you had received before.
In this example, Word documents were blocked; now they are not. After the adjustment so that Word documents are available: 
Before the adjustment when Word documents were not available:
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