Hi not sure if anyone can help with this one. So here goes we have windows vista and all of a sudden we can't open up any attachments in windows mail . The system restore will only let me restore to a recent date (within the last 2 weeks) so i can't use that to sort out the problem .The HP help desk suggest doing a factory restore but i would like to try and avoid that if its possible. Any ideas would be appreciated I had a look on the net and they said remove internet explorer 8 ,i did this but the problem is still there .We are uisng Mozill Firefox as internet explorer kept closing down. We have McAfee .

thanks Gillian

go to www.bitdefender.co.nz and run the online virus scan.

this should be better than mcafee antivirus

I'd say take it back to XP but that'd make things more complicated.

Perhaps try resetting your E-mail configuration?

Sorry I couldn't help more.

What do you mean, "can't open up any attachments in windows mail?" What happens when you try?

You could using Mozilla Thunderbird rather than Outlook or the Windows program.

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/t ... /features/

Actually, Ira, my mother had a similar problem and it was because the attachments file extension was something wierd, started with an L, but I didn't sort it out for her, so cannot give anymore details.

What do you mean, "can't open up any attachments in windows mail?" What happens when you try?

What happens is, that you can read the actual email but when you click on the paper clip thing to open up the attachment you get a message saying windows mail has stopped working and is checking for a solution then another box opens saying windows stopped working and windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

And then you have to click on close program to shut mail and reopen it. We are having this problem even with attachments we could previously open in the last month or so .Its all very frustrating as i have to forward emails with attachments to gmail and they can be opened ok

thanks Gillian

I'd suggest using webmail or similar.

get a something like adawear and run that to see if there is somethign hiding in the background that is blocking it.

It is always good to have more than one virus/spywear protection on you pc incase one of them misses something

www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions, we are going to do a factory restore as nothing we have done so far has solved the problem.

I've seen this a few times. Typically it was caused by a virus or something that has partially or fully disabled your antivirus protection. When you try to look at an attachment, your mail software goes to scan it using your antivirus software but because your av software has been crippled, it ends up killing your mail client. You can test this scenario by disabling antivirus protection on your email to see if it fixes the problem.

I'd suggest switching to a decent AV package. Bit Defender or NOD32 would be the 2 I would recommend. Personally I use NOD32 and I also use that for the AV protection for the company I work for.

Windows mail is known for corrupting its data files and it could well be that this has happened.

This commonly shows up with windows mail locking up or crashing when you try to open a mail folder or attachments. It usually happens when you have files stuck in the outbox.

Go to www.oehelp.com/wmutil/default.aspx and download a utility called wmutil which does a good job of repairing window mail files when they are corrupted. Try that. We have used it to repair a number of different mail prpblems and it has worlked so far. It is a zipped file so you will have to unzip it first.

Grant has been doing some searching and found a lot of others with the same problem and it was being caused by Nortons anti-virus.

Try temporarily disabling your anti virus and see if that helps. (I know you said you have McAfee) If you have had Nortons it may still be the cause. The latest 2009 version is fine but the earlier ones aren't (including some other anti virus programmes).

Another thing that may work is to save the attachments and then open them from the saved folder.

Try turning off the email scanner part of the anti virus progamme as this fixes the problem with other anti virus programmes apparently.

I have had exactly the same problem from day 1 with Vista . My wife opens my attachments on her computer which does not have Vista. My computer guy told me it is a conflict with the anti virus programs and Vista.