Intended For Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows Me Windows 98 Windows 95

Thanks to Cat Haglund

By default, Microsoft Outlook (part of Microsoft Office) won't allow you send or receive certain types of attachments; instead, you'll just get this message:

Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments: yourfile.mdb

The rationale is that these documents can contain viruses or other harmful code, but the fact that Outlook doesn't let you disable or at least customize this feature is just plain stupid. Here's how to do it:

1. Close Outlook.
2. Open the Registry Editor. (Start, Run, type in REGEDIT hit enter)
3. If you using Office XP/2002, expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Office\ 10.0\ Outlook\ Security

   If you using Office 2003, expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Office\ 11.0\ Outlook\ Security

4. Create a new string value by selecting New and then String Value from the Edit menu.
5. Name the new value Level1Remove.
6. Double-click the new Level1Remove to edit it, and enter the filename extensions you'd like to stop Outlook from blocking. Extensions should be typed in lower case, without the dots (.), and separated by semicolons (;). For example, type

   exe;mdb;vbs

   to allow .exe, .mdb, and .vbs attachments, respectfully.

7. Click Ok and then close the Registry Editor when you're done.
8. The next time you restart Outlook, you'll now be able to open previously-blocked attachments. (If an attachment is still blocked, you likely got the filename extension wrong.)

Note: I shouldn't have to tell you that this means you'll now be able to receive EXE files and other potentially harmful file types over email. Even though the majority of viruses are actually contained in Word documents (.doc files, which aren't blocked), you'll want to excercise some caution when opening any EXE files you subsequently receive.