Haven't we already done this 12 or 11 times? Don't you have to actively (presumably consciously) RUN an attached file to launch a virus, trojan, etc? Opening the email, automatically or otherwise, and intentionally activating the attachment or it's associated program, are two vastly different things, at least until the all knowing God of consumer computing mindlessly automates us into utter helplessness at ALL points past the big red switch. At this point we can still, if temporarily, decide for ourselves whether or not to hand our frail and tender operating systems and hard drive contents over to any given email attachment for dispensation as it pleases. So be it. Along with this freedom (there's that word again) of choice comes the personal responsibility to check the thing out before we ingest it. That's the current situation. Wallow in it, and relish it while it lasts. Attachments in mail readers can have trailing ".???" extensions that your reader cleverly doesn't show you, so's not to bother you with details and the unnecessary need for education. A harmless looking file like "HARMLESS.JPG", as seen in your mail reader, can actually be named "HARMLESS.JPG.EATTHEKNOWNUNIVERSE.EXE", and your mail reader just helpfully truncated the name for you after the first ".JPG". The result is that you can't be altogether sure what you're launching when you click on an attachment listing in an email reader. Make a wish, have an adventure. Alternatively, you might elect to try a different approach. If the attachment seems to be claiming to be a graphic file (*.jpg, gif, tif, bmp, tga, pcx, dxf - or whatever), shell out of your mail reader, fire up your graphic editor or viewer, and load it directly. There's no operating system program association involved when you attempt to load a graphic from a graphic editor or viewer, like there is from a mail reader. The viewer doesn't care what the operating system thinks (as is often obvious), and will steadfastly attempt to load the file as a graphic, because you told it to. If it happens that the file has lied to you and isn't what it claims to be, the viewer simply won't load it and will tell you so. If it won't load, that doesn't necessarily mean the file is a virus, or even remotely dangerous in any respect (though it could be). There are hundreds of peculiar, proprietary, mutated, and just plain aberrant graphic formats out there and it's more likely that yesterday's release of yet another set of new standards and compression algorithms has rendered your three day old graphic editor forevermore useless and obsolete. In any case, the file's harmless if you don't try to run it, and if you can't look it with an intentionally run graphics viewer, it's a moot point. Just delete the thing and get on with it. If the attachment is a ".doc", or "xls" Word or Excel file (or anything similar that may have imbedded macros), the virus scanner should catch it on download, and/or you can disable the macros if you decide to load it. If it's an obvious executable, consider that you are about to compute with everyone the sender has ever computed with, and everyone that they have ever computed with, and everyone... etc, etc. Then decide for yourself if it's a good risk. I'm pro choice, leave the attachments. Ron N
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