[pmmail-list] [mkc] How to open attachments

[Steve Ewing]

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 07:14:53 -0400, Mike Kilroy wrote:

>HMMM....
>
>ITS IN MY pmailw.ini; also in pmmail.exe
>
>I know it works cuz it opens *.att files and quickview.exe, not being on my computer, or course wouldn't.
>try sending yourself a text file you saved as junk.att.  If you can open it then it is in notepad; if not, then not.  
>I am sending you a sep email with pix of notepad opened file - it says so right on the top line!
>also, do search on your computer for quickview.exe and see if it is even there - I bvelieve that was an old win95 program that is 
>not installed on xp or 2000?
>
>
>
>--Original Message Text---
>From: Larry Alkoff
>Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 19:17:51 -0500
>
[...]
>An important question brought up by my wife (who I have taught to _never_ open attachments)
>is: will either quikview.exe or notepad.exe ever run executables?
>
>Larry Alkoff

You aren't understanding what Alt-V does.  Emails are sent as text. 
MIME is an attempt to render binary files as text so that they may be
sent as email.  When the email client receives an email with
attachments, it uses the MIME-type headers to identify them as
attachments in the first place, and also what type they are (jpeg,
text, exe, etc.).  What Alt-V (or Window->View full message) does is
display the message *as it was received*, no MIME translation or
anything.  This allows you to read the MIME headers yourself, to see
what they say, and, if the attachment is not in fact binary (like Mike
said, a lot of bounced email messages will show up as undefined text
attachments), you will be able to read the attachment right there.

No program is executed, no notepad is run, it is just displayed in the
PMMail message window.  If it is a binary attachment, like a jpeg, you
will see a header as in my previous email, and then a whole bunch of
garbage: the binary file translated into text by the MIME encoder.

My point was, having received an email with "Unnamed Attachment.att",
you can use Alt-V to see what the heck it is.  If it is something you
do want to see, like a jpeg image, you can save the attachment to your
desktop and rename it to, say, "Unnamed Attachment.jpg", which you can
then open with whatever image viewer you use.


--
Steve<steve@qmss.com>
http://www.qmss.com/~sewing


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