Need Help With Security Settings

Using XP Home with SP2 and IE6.5 I suddenly started having problems receiving certain e-mails and downloads because they are now being blocked. A video of a company meeting with an extension of .exe was considered as being ****, I suppose, and being blocked. When I open Internet Options and see my current Security setting is a Medium, I try to reset it to Medium-Low and it asks if I really want to do this and I say yes and Apply and OK but it won't take. It just keeps going right back to Medium. I've tried a dozen times but no luck. I THINK this was caused by some automatic updates but don't know which one so I can't delete it. Can anone advise? I would appreciate your help.
Thanks, Jim
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Is this on a company network? IF so contact your network admin; it is security software on the gateway which is set to prevent certain file types from being downloaded . They may be able to allow permissions for certain sites.

If this is outlook express; tools/options/ security
Uncheck "Do not allow files which may be viruses or security risks to be downloaded or saved "

Note that you should close OE and restart your computer after this before you download any mail or it may revert.

 

Thank you PeteC and oshwtb5, however, neither of your suggestions solved my problem. Pete, you suggested sfc /scannow which I have not yet done but is this the same as scandisk? If so, I do a Cleandisk, Defrag and Scandisk every week to keep it cleaned up.

You are correct, I have IE6 and using Outlook 6 and under Tools, Security there is no "Virus Protection" category so I could not find "Do not allow attachments to be opened or saved" so that I could un-check it.

Also not found was Block Images. Only block as HTML and it is and always was, unchecked.

This is a small company network with only 2 Towers and one Laptop and no Administrator (unless it is me). Also not found, in order to uncheck, Tools/Options/Security "Do not allow files which may be viruses or security risks to be downloaded or saved." I use AVG as Virus Protection. Could this be part of the problem?

Many thanks,
Jim

 

Have you checked with your ISP to see if they have recently started some sort of spam-blocking at their end?

I'm about 99% sure this is not an Outlook issue but easy enough for you to check. Set up your account in Outlook Express (but set it to only get mail when told to and to leave a copy on the server). Then get someone to send the .exe video (and .exe is sort of strange for a video file) so you can try to get it in OE. If that also fails with the same sort of error, it is absolutely not an Outlook issue.

As to your not being able to set security below medium - if you have tried sfc /scannow with no improvement, check to see if the issue is only with one user account or if any account you use to log on will behave the same. If you don't have an extra account to play with, boot to safe mode and log on as Administrator (required to add a new user to XP-home) and add a test user.

As a matter of curiosity, how are you doing scandisk on an XP system? XP uses chkdsk and doesn't have scandisk available. It went away with 9x/ME.

 

These are in Outlook Express, not Internet Explorer