Outlook 2003 Security Options

[markp]

Microsoft seem to assume everyone's a dumbass. I work from home, using a Terminal Server located at the head office. They've got Outlook 2003 installed, but I keep getting an "Attachment Security Warning" when trying to open Word Documents that I get emailed. Instead of the usual Open, Save, Cancel buttons I can only Save or cancel. This is a real hassle, and I've tried every registry tweak under the sun to try and fix this. Anyone know what's going on?

Thanks

[[O-CuK]Hantai]

For starters it would help if you specified what the attachment is. Second, it's about damn time Microsoft start assuming anyone using Outlook is a dumbass because very often that IS the case . Outlook and Outlook Express are the two most vulnerable mail clients in the history of computing, they have more security flaws than any average consumer could ever hope to keep track of. You state this is a work instalation, keep in mind it's your IT department that determines the policies governing Outlook's behaviour, particularly on a shared system such as a Terminal Server, it's extremely likely they've deliberately stopped the 'Open' function from being available so as to prevent the myriad of dumbasses in the company from executing viruses directly and possibly bypassing antivirus software. Are you sure you're not violating your employer's IT policy by applying registry patches to a shared Terminal Server (as a user you shouldn't even have rights to do so)? At our company someone tampering with our Citrix server farm in that way would be up for disciplanry action or possible dismissal. If you're sure that's not the case this question should be directed at your IT department, not this forum.

[Marci]

Well if we were talking Outlook Express, I'd just go Tools > Options > Security then untick the "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially...."

I only have Outlook XP here to play with, and can't find similar in there...

However if save is still an available option then someone has indeed disabled the open option, probably because opening on the fly bypasses antivirus protection whereas saving to disk first allows it to run thru...

See http://www.thethin.net/faqs2.cfm?id=383&ca...=2&sortby=score

Altho I'm guessing it's more than likely this:

http://www.thethin.net/faqs2.cfm?id=142&ca...=2&sortby=score

But as Hantai rightly points out, if your company has an IT dept or IT Policy and you're fiddling with registry settings without their permission / instruction you're lining yourself right up for a formal warning by your supervisor / superiors for breach of company policy and abuse of resources. And at a guess, if they're using Terminal Services, then they're big enough to have a qualified IT Section and Policies in place... so I'd just phone yer IT helpdesk.

[markp]

Well, we're only a small company - and I kinda set up the server before I started working from home, so I'm sure they won't mind!

I forgot to say that the attachment is a DOC file. If I had a choice, then I wouldn't use Outlook, but unfortunately Thunderbird doesnt support Exchange servers.

I normally agree with you Hantai, since I've lost count of the number of "I just opened this attachment..." calls that I've had, but it would be nice if Outlook didn't treat me with the same level of "Don't do that!" as it quite rightly should for the average user.