"Surferbar" virus>Outlook sucks>best browser/email client

[Thermodyne]

Yep, such is life. Actually, the preview window is so vulnerable that MS should have removed it from the program. It is a long standing problem that MS has refused to address.

[Alneyan]

Oh yes, the preview window is an invitation for viruses. Apart from that... I didn't know you could turn this "feature" off though. If you would like to use this kind of preview window, I'm afraid you will have to change your mail program. (Assuming they remain safe from viruses and/or not plagued with security holes)

[geoschmo]

Yahoo webmail has a nice feature that let's me view an email without allowing the html stuff to show up unless I click a little "show html" button at the bottom of the email. That way I can read the text of the message before I decide if I want to view the images. Is that possible in outlook? Would that prevent this stuff from getting executed and run on your pc?

Geoschmo

[Fyron]

You can set outlook to always view emails in plain text instead of HTML.

[Azselendor]

I recall a statement from Microsoft saying that a number of the security holes in various Windows operating systems won't be patched because it might interfere in future "advertising campigns".

Most likey to pull a stunt link Windows 98 and roll 3 years of bug fixes, IE, and a pile of bloatware into one uber-useless windows.

If anything, I think these viruses might have been created and launched as a response to that whole press release.

[ September 03, 2003, 20:36: Message edited by: Klvino ]

[Phoenix-D]

Dogscoff, this isn't the only or first virus to exploit the preview window. The one time I got a virus, guess how? It was nimda, via that window..

[Baron Munchausen]

People generally use Outlook, or 'Express', because they have to interface with certain MS network services on a business LAN and no other email programs can do that. (I've spaced the name-- MS Exchange? I forget. You can tell I don't have to F- with it... )

There are lots of alternative email programs. Eudora, Pegasus (I think that made the leap from Win 3.1 to 95/98?), 'The Bat' and a bunch of other shareware programs.

The best solution, though, is to completely replace both Outlook and IE. Go to www.mozilla.org and download the 1.4 Version (latest 'stable' release) of Mozilla! Yes, it's available for Windows and the full install is only about 13 megabytes. Not too bad even on a 56k link. (Certainly less than IE 5/6!) Shockwave/Flash works with it just as well as with IE and there is a link to get the Sun Java plugin so you can have Java. It has email and newsreader and even IRC (Chatzilla) built-in! This is a complete replacement for all that sh*t that MS has been forcing on people since they realized Netscape existed and decided to stomp them, and it's vastly more secure and reliable. Has some cool features that IE doesn't too, like 'tabbed' browsing.

[ September 04, 2003, 00:34: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]