Problems opening attachments in Windows Mail (Windows Vista)
For those of you familiar with the pains of upgrading to a new operating system, the occasional glitch and bug is to be expected, but what to do if you find a major flaw for which there is no fix? Windows Vista is surely not exempt from the list of OSes that have resulted in frequent hair-pulling.
One interesting flaw that a client of mine ran into was the damage caused by installing an older version of Office (97) in Windows Vista. The Office program itself worked fine, but what happened to Vista’s built-in email client “Windows Mail” was quite strange. She couldn’t open any attachments from within Windows Mail, including .jpgs or .doc files. After several attempts to fix it and many fruitless searches in online forums, I decided the easiest solution to this problem was to think outside the “Windows box” as far as what email program to use. Since my time with this client, I’ve learned that many others have run into this problem, and as of this post Microsoft has yet to issue a fix for it.
Here’s what you do:
1. Download Mozilla Thunderbird. It’s an elegant and free email client. Vastly superior to Windows Mail. You can get it at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
2. Install Thunderbird. Configure it to work with your email account, and if it asks to be set as the default email program click “Yes”.
3. Open Windows Mail and forward any emails with attachments back to yourself by using your own email address. Be sure to close Windows Mail before it checks for new messages. Otherwise they will boomerang back into Windows Mail.
4. Open Thunderbird. Check for new messages. Once they arrive, try opening those with attachments. They should open without any problems.
I find this solution to be much more than just a band-aid approach to fixing the problem. Mozilla Thunderbird is a fantastic, easy to use, free alternative to Windows Mail, and doesn’t skimp on features either. So if you find yourself experiencing this particular problem, you will probably be better off downloading and installing Thunderbird anyway!
Best of luck!
Until next time…
Brian Kenney @ Your Service