I am using avast home edition and I am not able to access and open any e-mail attachments I receive using outlook express. The attachment icon is appearing but I am not able to click to open. It is disabled.
Pl. help to open the file. But every time all the attachments are downloaded to my PC.
I am using yahoo / pop3 for Outlook express.
Pl help.
BaLaR, welcome to the forums…
what are your security settings in OE?
also, what are your system specifictions…OS, etc.?
it may be tomorrow before you get an answer due to the time zones…but help is available 
cojo
p.s. have you tried doing a forum search using OE and attachments?
BalaR,
Are you using Outlook Express version 6.0? If so here is what may be wrong with the default setting that will not let you open attachments. Go to your Outlook Express inbox, click on tools, scroll down to “Options”, left click on that. In the Options window that will open, click on the “Security Tab”. Under “Virus Protection” look to see if this option is ticked. “Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potientially be a virus.” This option is checked by default from the factory and if it remains that way it’s possible that you will not be able to open ANY attachment that Outlook Express THINKS is a virus. By unchecking this option this should solve your problem. Hope this helps. Have a nice day.
Thanks CoJo for the quick reply.
I am using Windows 98se. & OE6
To my knowledge no special protection for OE except the identity password.
It all started a few months back oneday suddenly I am not able to access OE and when I checked the on-access protection for mail, it says it is waiting for a sub system to start.
From that day I havn’t received any virus warning while my mail is downloaded and I had to delete suspecious mails after opening web based mail and use yahoo virus checker. But auto update is seems to be doing fine without on-access protection.
Pl help.
Thanks neal62,
Good lesson learnt. It SOLVED my problem. I am able to access all attachments. Thanks.
Any suggestion for item 2 in my previos reply which prompted me to install IE6.
I can’t find what you’re talking about… :
Can you post your problems again? Thanks.
I cann’t activate On access protection for inbound mails. when I checked the on access protection setting, it says it is waiting for a sub system to start. (other 4 types of on-access protections are doing fine)
Hence my in bound mails are not protected (on access) nowadays. Hence no virus warnings. But auto update is doing fine.
It’s not wrong.
It’s a plugin waiting that your start MS Outlook (not the Express). 
Try to run MS Outlook and see what you get.
I think not. Which email program do you use?
Technical, he is using Outlook Express, not MS Outlook (correct me if I’m wrong). He needs to start INTERNET MAIL provider in Avast! On Access Scanner, not the Outlook/Exchange.
BalaR - MS Outlook and Outlook Express are completely two different e-mail clients. If you don’t use Outlook, then go to On-Access scanner and terminate OUTLOOK/EXCHANGE provider… you don’t need that.
For protecting your accounts in Outlook Express, you need to have Internet Mail provider started.
Cheers !
Sasha, you’re fully right :-[
BalaR, if you don’t use full Outlook, terminate the provider (plugin) as Sasha said
Thanks for the replies,
Understood the difference in protection viz. outlook/exchange and Internet Mail. In my case Internet Mail for OE6. Its running fine. Auto update is OK.
But no warnings of any incoming virus attachments for the past 2 months. May be roughly I would have received around 10 such mails in this 2 months. I had to manually open yahoo web browser, use the yahoo virus checker on suspecious mails and delete the same.
May be my OE6 security setting was an added protection all these days since it was in default mode which prevents attachments being opened.
P.S. I am using Aavst for the past 1 year with auto update but only in the last 2 months there is no virus warning. One coincidence could be my OE5 got corrupted and I reinstalled OE6 during that time.
Completely close your Outlook Express. Start Mail Protection Wizard (Start → ALL PROGRAMS → Avast! antivirus → Mail Protection Wizard)
Put Checkmarks on AUTOMATICALLY PROTECT ALL MY ACCOUNTS and AUTOMATICALLY PROTECT ALL ACCOUNTS THAT I CREATE IN THE FUTURE.
When you finish and close Mail protection wizard, just open avast! On-Access scanner, go into Internet Mail Provider and click on CUSTOMIZE.
Put checkmars on SCAN INBOUND MAIL as well as INSERT NOTE INTO CLEAN MESSAGE… same for SCAN OUTBOUND MAIL… for all of them - POP, SMTP, IMAP…
Let us know what’s happening…
There is a known bug on this sub-routine…
You must run Mail Protection Wizard after adding an account. It’s not running (as it should) automatically 
Yeah, you’re right Technical… thanks for correcting me…
Anyway, it’s not so hard just to start Mail Protection Wizard each time after adding some new e-mail account, because, how often we add new accounts ? Good think, not too often… ;D
Cheers !