X-no-Archive:yes
Note that MS provides at their web site a patch for the various flavors of
Outlook that do not allow the user to run an executable sent as an
attachment; it must first be saved. This at least increases the chance that
you will realize that it is an executable by virtue of your being required
to save it, and increases the chances that your background anti-virus
scanner will scan it, giving it two good chances (on save an on open) to
recognize that it is a virus, Trojan horse, etc. An interesting effect of
this patch is that ZIP files are rightly regarded as executable, since one
can set up a zip file to run a program upon unzipping or some such
potentially nasty behavior.

Thanks to Glenn Cole for having posted some info on configuring Outlook and
IE to not automatically run various flavors of scripts. I believe the MS web
site also has some info on doing this for just OE and not IE, although the
principles are the largely the same for Outlook proper. I just entered
"Outlook disable script" in the search box on the MS home page, and got
several hits, including the OE page at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q192/8/46.ASP. Other hits
might be more appropriate to your own situation.

Hmmm. Searching further for the first item, the patch, I found the Outlook
E-mail Security Update at
<http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/Out98sec.htm?FinishURL=%2
Fdownloads%2Frelease%2Easp%3FReleaseID%3D21713%26redirect%3Dno>, or, for
those of you who REALLY trust me, you can download the Outlook 98 update at
<http://download.microsoft.com/download/outlook98/o98sec/98/WIN98/EN-US/o98s
ecu.exe>. This is supposed to reset Outlook to treat ALL email as coming
from a restricted zone, and not to run scripts from there.

For some reason I am reminded of the old joke about the Calvinist who bore
arms whenever he rode out of town. Someone asked him if he didn't trust
divine providence to protect him from all harm until it was his time to go.
He replied that he did, but it might be divine providence that he would meet
a highway robber whose time it was to go.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com
not so worried about viruses here
although I do meet a great many spammers whose time has come

-----Original Message-----
From: Emerson, Tom # El Monte [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 3:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Span on this list.

<snip>
This is not to say this is the case for all "e-mail" viruses -- there ARE
some that will "activate" once the surrounding message is opened (i.e., you
don't have to explicitly "open/execute" the attachment)  These are
particularly nasty for people who use the so-called "preview pane" [which is
really a seperate window where the message is opened merely by pointing to
it from another window...]