# Outlook Express problem: links and attachments

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-problem-links-and-attachments/429452>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 10, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-problem-links-and-attachments/429452 "2007-12-10T05:36:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-problem-links-and-attachments/429452/1 "2007-12-10T05:36:30Z")

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My mother uses Outlook Express 6 on her computer. She told me that she is unable to open links in e-mails that she receives by clicking on them. She says that she must copy the link and paste it into a browser window to open it. She also told me that she used to be able to open links in e-mails without copying and pasting. She has another problem with attachments. As near as I can understand, she has to open another window in Outlook Express to be able to open attachments that people send her. I have no idea if this is how it’s supposed to be, though, as I don’t use Outlook Express myself. She says that she didn’t have to do that before.

She used to use dial-up but we changed to a cable internet connection and she says that she thinks these changes occurred around that time.

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-problem-links-and-attachments/429452/2 "2007-12-10T07:56:13Z")

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One possible cause for this is that the action of clicking a weblink (.html file) triggers a specific program (your browser) to run. If the file association gets messed up, then the system will try to start the wrong program when you click on a link, and probably will not be able to link to that website.

So you might try checking the file associations, and see that web files, like .html, are set to trigger your preferred browser.

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**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-express-problem-links-and-attachments/429452/3 "2007-12-12T04:23:38Z")

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She told me today that everything was working as it should again. It turned out that she hadn’t updated some things in a while and this last update fixed her problem. Thank you for replying, though.