Open, Save, and Edit Email Attachments in Windows Mail

Send and manage files over email like a pro

When you double-click an attachment in Windows Mail, it opens if the file is deemed safe or you have enabled all attachments and Windows know how to handle the file.

You can view the file, and—if it’s a word processor document—you can edit it. You can even save it, but the changes you make are not reflected in the copy of the file stored in the email. When you open the attachment again from Windows Mail, the changes are gone.

However, they may not be gone forever. When you open an attachment directly from Windows Mail, a temporary copy of the file is generated, and then Windows calls for the associated program to open the copy. You just need to know where to look for the copy.

Save Attachments Before Opening Them

To avoid any problems with lost editing:

Save the attachment you want to edit to a Windows folder.

Open the copy in the folder for editing in the appropriate program.

Where Attachments Opened From Windows Mail Are Stored

Should you forget to edit using a copy of the file, you can try recovering the file from the Temporary Internet Files folder:

Select Control Panel from the Start menu.

Open Internet Options. If you cannot see Internet Options, try selecting Classic View.

Go to the General tab.

Now choose View Files under the Temporary Internet files folder.

Look for the edited copy of the attachment in the Temporary Internet Files folder or within a subfolder in the Temporary Internet Files folder. If you find the file, double-click it to open it, and then save it to a separate folder on your computer, such as My Documents.

Open Attachments in Windows 10 Mail without saving

Right clicking the attachment gives the option to «Open» or «Save» but clicking either pulls up a window to save the file in Documents.

Thanks for any help!

Replies (6) 

Hi Roger,
I am Sumit, an Independent Advisor and a 3 year Windows Insider MVP here to help.

A double click should usually open this instead of save. Does this happen with all kind of files irrespective of file types?

Sumit
Available 6 PM — 8 AM PST

It is always good to include your PC Specs, make and model in the question

Never Call the Phone numbers received in Emails from the Microsoft Community

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Thanks for answer,

Yes this happen with .xlsx, docx, pptx. Basically with all types of files

My Windows 10 version is: 1909

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Thanks. Please try resetting default apps to Microsoft recommended as a default step:

Disclaimer:
This is a non-Microsoft website which would provide accurate and safe information. Watch out for ads on the site which are frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). There is no need to buy paid products to fix your computers as they do more harm than good sometimes.

Sumit
Available 6 PM — 8 AM PST

It is always good to include your PC Specs, make and model in the question

Never Call the Phone numbers received in Emails from the Microsoft Community

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I already did that and the issue persist

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Unfortunately, the next step is to reset the Mail app. You would have to set up the account again after this.

Disclaimer:
There are links to non-Microsoft websites which would provide accurate and safe information. Watch out for ads on the websites which are frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). There is no need to buy paid products to fix your computers as they do more harm than good sometimes.

Sumit
Available 6 PM — 8 AM PST

It is always good to include your PC Specs, make and model in the question

Never Call the Phone numbers received in Emails from the Microsoft Community

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Windows Mail Attachments open sporatically.

I have a client who recently purchased a new computer for his office. I installed it for him with no problems.
It is an HP with all of the latest updates for Vista. He uses Windows Mail and when he tries to open attachments by left clicking his mouse, sometimes it will open the attachment and sometimes it won’t. If he right clicks the mouse, he can save the attachment and then open it. Of course, he wants it to work as it should all of the time. This morning when he came in, it would not open the attachment. He logged off then logged back in and he could open the attachments with the left click. So the attachments are correctly associated but the function doesn’t work.

Any ideas for an unhappy customer?

Suggestions are suggestions, nothing more, they can freely be disregarded as easily as they are freely offered in an attempt to help a fellow computer user. Disabling E-mail checking is a genuine diagnostic step, it is one that I am familiar with and it would be neglectful of me not to mention it. E-mail checking is an unnecessary part of malware protection because if you have your Anti Virus set for realtime scanning then when you open any attachment the file will be scanned anyway. It is only offered as a one time temporary step, not as a permanent setting. The same could be said for most diagnostic steps, that is until you find the actual cause of the problem.

Checking to see if other security programs (or third party software or services) are causing problems is also worthwhile.

310560 — How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929135

If you suspect a Windows Update is the cause of the problem then you could uninstall the update if you know which one it is, or uninstall all of them from the date in question. You can then check the outcome for E-mails. If the problem is fixed you would then reinstall the updates one at a time, checking E-mail functionality as you go thereby narrowing down the cause to one update. A similar task can be performed via System restore where you would go back in time to any older restore point before the problem, check for a remedy, if it was not forthcoming, you could «Undo» the restore and return to the present time.

How to repair the operating system and how to restore the operating system configuration to an earlier point in time in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936212/#appliesto

Another possibility might be a faulty Mouse, can they test with another Mouse?

This is an interesting post, but it might not be relevant, then again.

Or this one, any clues from the comment about the file already existing?

Answerers here are not all connected with Microsoft, most (like myself) are just other computer users, like you, who frequent this and other Forums.

Can’t open attachments in Windows Mail

• Is it a specific type of attachment you can’t open or is it with every attachment?

• Did you make any recent changes on the computer?

You may try to set Windows mail as default program in Internet Explorer and check whether you can open the attachments:

Step 1: Set Windows mail as default program

1. Open Internet Explorer

2. Click on Tools and select Internet Options.

3. In Internet options, select Internet Programs

4. In Internet Programs select set programs and select Windows mail as default.

Then change Windows mail as Default program by following the steps:

1. Click on the Start button and in the Start Search box type in: Default

2. Click on the Default Programs icon that appears at the top of the Start Menu.

3. Click on Set your Default Programs and set Windows mail as the default email program.

Windows Mail blocks access to certain types of attachments that can potentially be harmful to your computer

Step 2: For instructions on how to access blocked files:

1. Open Windows Mail by clicking the Start button, clicking All Programs, and then clicking Windows Mail.

2. Click the Tools menu, and then click Options.

3. Click the Security tab, clear the Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus check box, and then click OK.

For more information, you may refer the following link:

You may refer the following link and perform the online scan on your computer to check whether your computer is been infected by any virus or not.

Hope this information is useful.

Praseetha K
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
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If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the «Mark as Answer» or «Helpful» button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

Windows Mail does not open attachments, can’t open PDF, JPEG attachments.

June 29, 2009
PROBLEMS OPENING JPEG AND PDF ATTACHMENTS TO E-MAILS: COMMAND FAILED TO EXECUTE. GET HELP FROM COMMUNITIES.

I went to communities and found this answer:

ATTEMPTED FIX NO. 1

>> VISTA PROBLEM
>> To correct go to:-
>> Windows Mail
>> Tools
>> Options
>> Security
>> 2nd Box must be blank ( do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that
>> could potentially be a virus)
>> Apparently things get changed on updates that we don’t see!
>> If it recurs check to see iof box has become ticked again, if not come out
>> of windows mail and then go in again and it should be okay.

I did this, and this his did not solve the problem.

ATTEMPTED FIX NO. 2

So I went to my Antivirus program, Avira Antivirus,
and I changed:

Configuration > GUARD > SCAN WHEN READING And WRITING > USE FILE EXTENSION LIST >

And here, in the list of file extensions to Scan and Guard against, I deleted from the list: JPEG, JPG, PDF.

This did not solve the problem.

ATTEMPTED FIX NO. 3

I also run the new MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS, BETA.

went to MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS (BETA) . SETTINGS > EXCLUDED FILE TYPES > and added *.jpeg and *.pdf

There was no change, when I tried to open the PDF attachment I still received: «Command Failed to Execute»

ATTEMPTED FIX NO. 4

(By the way, I have nothing better to do in my office on a busy Monday morning than fix this bug for MSFT).

I deleted IE 8 from my system, and in fact deleted all IE from my system, I will stick with Mozilla.

ATTEMPTED FIX NO. 5

I finally found a message board and followed the suggestions of Saving the file to my desktop and then
opening it with Adobe, and that worked fine.

WHY CAN’T I JUST OPEN EMAIL ATTACHMENTS FROM MS MAIL ?