InfiniTec - Henning Krauses Blog

Don't adjust your mind - it's reality that is malfunctioning

Regain access to blocked atachments in Outlook XP

Affected products

  • Microsoft Outlook XP
  • Microsoft Outlook 2003

Summary

This article describes how Outlook XP can be configured, so that it no longer blocks access to attachments certain file types such as .exe.

Description

Since Outlook 200 SP 2, outlook blocks access to attachment of certain file type such as executables or scripts.
There are two types of blocks: The level one files are completely blocked, so that no access is possible, albeit they are not deleted by Outlook. The level 2 files are blocked in that way, that the user can not open them directly. They must be saved to disk before an access is possible.
Outlook XP can now be configured so that level one filetypes can be transformed to level two files..

SOLUTION

To change the behavior of Outlook, the following steps are necessary:
  1. Open the registry editor.
  2. If you are using Outlook XP, navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security.Under Outlook 2003, navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security.
  3. Create a new value of type String named Level1Remove.
  4. Open the value and enter a semicolon separated list. For example:
    .exe;.ppt;.url;
    After Outlook has been restarted, the access to the attachments is no longer blocked.

Status

This behavior is by design.

Posted by Henning Krause on Friday, December 31, 2004 2:09 PM, last modified on Friday, December 31, 2004 2:27 PM
Permalink | Post RSSRSS comment feed