Microsoft Outlook has a feature to block the attachments that it considers unsafe. Although Outlook blocks the attachments but attachment still exist in the e-mail message.

Sometimes when there are important attachments which do not open, you might find yourself in trouble.

Recently we received a problem mail from one of our reader who says that:

whenever I try to open a attachment in outlook, gets a message “Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments”

Let’s see how can you alter the attachment security behavior in outlook to open the specified blocked attachment in mail.

Fix:

There are two simple fixes to this problem, the first fix involves a small free outlook plugin which lets you allows any blocked file type in outlook, the second fix is the geeky way out to solve this problem with registry editing.

Attachment Security Plug-in:

AttachmentSecurity is a free plugin for Microsoft Outlook which solves the problem by presenting an easy to use interface that allows you to select which file attachments you want to block or unblock from within Outlook.

As AttachmentSecurity is Microsoft Outlook security plugin you will need to configure it to block or unblock the list of files types from with in the outlook itself ( as shown in the image below, click to enlarge).

Limitations: It requires the Microsoft .Net Framework to be installed on your computer.

Download AttachmentSecurity Plugin For Microsoft Outlook

Registry Hack (Geeky Way):

1. Exit Microsoft Outlook if it is running.

2. Click Start >> Run, and type regedit, and press Enter.

3. Look for the following registry key for your version of Outlook exists. If it exist, go to step 5.
For Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security

For Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security

For Microsoft Outlook 2002

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security

For Microsoft Outlook 2000

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security

If the registry key does not exist, then you need to create it at the following registry path:

a. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft

b. Click Edit under File Menu, click New >> Key.

c. type Office, and press ENTER.

d. Click Edit under file menu, click New >> Key.

e.

For Outlook 2007, type 12.0, and press ENTER
For Outlook 2003, type 11.0, and press ENTER
For Outlook 2002, type 10.0, and press ENTER
For Outlook 2000, type 9.0, and press ENTER

f. Click Edit menu, click New >> Key.

g. Type Outlook, and then press ENTER.

h. Click Edit under File menu, click New >> Key.

i. Type Security, and then press ENTER.

4. Click Edit under file menu, click New and select String Value.

5. Type the following name for the new value and press Enter

Remove Restrictions

6. Right-click new string value name, and select Modify.

Now type the file name extension of the file type that you want to open in Outlook.

For example:

.exe

To specify multiple file types, use the following format:

.exe;.com

7. Click OK , exit registry and restart your computer for changes to come into effect.  

I know First Fix is quite faster and easy to implement, but the second method is cool if you are confident enough to play with your system registry.

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