Vista - opening attachments

When I go to open an attachment, it tells me "The file does not have a
program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association
in the Set Associations control panel." I have no idea what that means or how
to find that control panel.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Every file has a file type. In order to open that file, you must have a program associated with that file type (e.g. Windows Photo Gallery for .jpeg files). If you do not want to deal with all the technicalities, download and install "OpenWith" ( Free programs to open any file extension! ). That will give you an option in your context menu to open any file and if the corresponding file type association is not present on your system, it will propose a program with which you can open the file. Very handy.
Read "Instructions" on the left side of the linked page. That will give you a better idea how it works.

PS: the file type control panel you find in the "Default programs" - but that can be messy to handle.

[crosspost to IE General]

Have you installed IE8?

What anti-virus application or security suite is installed, is your
subscription current, and is it supported in IE8? What anti-spyware
applications (other than Defender)? What third-party firewall (if any)?
Were any of these applications running in the background when you installed
IE8?

Has a Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this machine
(e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought it)?

Is "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Vista (KB969897)"
listed in Installed Updates?

Just asking for now!! Do NOT use such a Restore Point yet!! => Do you have
an available Restore Point which predates the install of IE8?

If you do the following, does the behavior persist?

=> Start | All Programs | right-click on Windows Mail | select Properties
| Start in <=delete the value here (leaving it empty/blank) & OK your way
out.

NB: Uninstalling IE8 (cf. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957700) should
resolve the behavior but you should not have encountered it in the first
place if IE8 was installed properly; cf.
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...7d79493eac253d
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002


chunt92106 wrote:

I have the openwith. I know files can only be opened with certain programs.
That is not the problem. It will not let me open them, even with the correct
program. (voice file with express scribe.)

"whs" wrote:

That error message is misleading.
Is your problem limited to a certain file type, such as DOC or PPS?

Note that your issue has nothing to do with file associations or the
recent IE8-caused trouble with attachments.

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)


"chunt92106" <chunt92106@xxxxxx> wrote in message news068EE3D-9A76-4544-A34C-7F4FC68FC20F@xxxxxx

Are you able to save the attachment, and then open the saved file
outside of Windows Mail?

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)


"chunt92106" <chunt92106@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:66EAD8FA-1736-4A69-A58B-97A4994C6455@xxxxxx

[Now it's crossposted to IE General]

PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote: