.Gif .jpg .wmf blocking ???

Although I think Avast is a great anti virus program I am at a loss to understand why avast continues to block the above files once Microsoft brings out a fix to prevent infection.

Once Microsoft provides a fix to these problems when if ever will avast stop blocking these files?

Surely once a fix has been provided by Microsoft this blocking should be lifted with suitable warnings to individuals to update their Microsoft system or suffer the consequences.

I have kept my Windows XP up to date but avast will not let me open an email with .Gif or .jpg files. I never had this problem with my IncrediMail program before I installed Avast and there should be a way of excluding these individual Emails from being scanned as they arrive. ( If there is and I have missed something please let me know.)

Strangely enough I can save these same files to a desktop folder and I have NO trouble opening and running them fron there ( Why doesn’t Avast monitor these same files on the Desktop with the same vigilance as it did when the same files were in IncrediMail ??)

avast! does not block any particular file type (unless you put the corresponding masks into WebShield’s “URL Blocking” list yourself - but that would only affect web browsing, not e-mails).
What exactly does avast! say? Or, what exactly does it mean that they are “blocked”?

Avast does not tell me anything. But Incredimail tells me The attachment file ‘*****.jpg’ could not be found [It may have been deleted or blocked, for example by AntiVirus]

But I can save this attachment to a desktop folder and from there I can open the .jpg file without any problem .

This never ever happened before I installed Avast and I have the same experience with .Gif files ???

You can save the attachment, but not start it? It sounds like an Incredimail problem (or maybe feature?) to me.
If avast! blocked the file (e.g. when being written to the TEMP folder), it would show you the usual “Virus found!” dialog.

Exactly, and btw we all (using some other mail clients, like for example OE, Thunderbird or any other) would have exactly the same problems, but we don’t.

So it looks like it’s definitelly Incredimail issue.

I can start the program once I save it to a desktop folder, just cannot run it while it is in IncrediMail .

Incredimail has worked perfectly for me for the past 12 months and has not caused me any problems at all until I installed avast. Maybe Incredimail does things a little different but it also means the Email information going into IncrediMail from avast is now is different to what Incredimail has been used to for the past twelve months ???
Maybe the two programs are incompatible ?
Is there anyone else out there with IncrediMail having the same problem ???

The e-mail doesn’t really go “from Incredimail to avast!”. Once the e-mail is scanned by avast! and delivered to Incredimail, avast! is not involved anymore.
Maybe you updated something recently? (Incredimail, some Windows patch, …?)

Problem solved.

I have just now upgraded IncrediMail from V2180 to V2185 and everything works again.

Many many thanks to everyone involved N. Tesla and especially igor for his patience with me and some behind the scenes help from tednelly who now says “I told you so.”