I have received and e-mail which when I try  to open up the attachment (I trust the person who sent it) says this file does not have an association connected with it for performing this action. Please  create an association in the folder options control panel. Hints about what I can do to create the association. I don't know what the folder option control panel is. T hanks

If you hit the start button, you should see control panel as one of your options.
If you click control panel, one of the options there is Folder options.
Open folder options and click on the File Types tab.
There will be a listing of file extension types there. Find the extension of the attachment. [.pdf, .htm, .gif, etc]
When you highlight the extension, it will show details concerning it in the area below the listings.
One of these is "opens with". In this case, there will be no program listed to open it with. Click the change button and a window will open offering you a selection of programs on your computer to choose from.
As an alternative, you can right click on the file and choose "open with" from the listing and it will open the same window to allow you to pick a program to open the file with.

   Another option is just to save the attachment to your hard drive and then open it with the program that runs it.

I do not find any File options in control panel. Can you be more speciific. Thanks

Please read more carefully.
That was FOLDER OPTIONS as previously stated.

sorry, I don't  find folder options in the control panel options. Your'e usually right but I think I need more direction / Thanks

   It should be in the Control Panel but if not, open Windows Explorer (right click on the Start button and select Explore or find it in the Start menu).  There will be a Folder Options in Window Explorer's menu somewhere (try looking under Tools).

Hi billrob:

If you haven't worked it out yet, here are some  other possibilities. I don't know how much computer experience you have, so please forgive me if I give the instructions in the same way that I do for my Mother-in-law, who is just starting.

Before all else, please be sure that the file you want to see is safe: that does not have any virus or spyware associated with it or contained it it. But that's another (very important) discussion.

1. Highlight the file by clicking on it once. The file should now appear as if it had been coloured by a blue highlighter.

2. Now point to that file with your mouse, and "right-click" it -- click once with the right button on the mouse.

3. Wait for a few seconds, and you should see a menu appear. One of the items on the menu should be "Open with" with a black triangle on the right side.

4. Run your mouse up to (or down to) that item on the list. As the pointer goes up (or down) the list, each item it passes will be highlighted in order.

5. When you get to "Open with" another Menu should appear beside the one you are "in". It will list one or more programs that your computer thinks may work for that particular attachment.

6. You can try out each of the programs in the list. If any of them work, then that's good. Problem solved.

7. However, if those do not work, there is still another choice in the "Open With" menu. You will find it at the bottom, where it says: "Choose program..."

8. Choose that option, and you will find a list of most of the programs on your computer. If you look through that list, one of them might seem to be a good one to try.
NOTE: If you do that, let me suggest that you do NOT have a check-mark in front of the line at the bottom of that little "dialog box" which says "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file." In otherwords, please click on that box to REMOVE the check-mark if it is there.

If none of that works, perhaps you can do a couple of things.

Post the name of the file here (we do not want the complete file, just its name. Most importantly, we want to be sure to see what the three-letter "extension" is -- that is, the three letters that are at the end, just after the dot in the filename. (For example: filename.txt, fielename.doc, filename.pdf, filename.vmv, filename.jpg or whatever -- we need the .txt, .doc, .pdf, .vmv, .jpg and so on.) This will give someone a clue as to what the program might be that you need.

Finally, if you are, or anyone else is curious, there is an interesting web-site that helps to explain all this "file extension" stuff. It also lists all the file extensions known to those who run the site, and tells you what program(s) are associated with any particular extension. You will find it at:

http://filext.com/


I hope that this will help you, or anyone else having the same problem. We all get it at one time or other.

Peter

Thanks for the latest reply. I found the folder options tab under tools and i will be looking for the extension "Romania 5.pps.

files with the extention .pps are Powerpoints I believe. Unless you have Powerpoint installed (part of Microsoft Office) not sure you can view the document.

THANKS. THAT SETTLES IT ALL / THANKS FOR THE EDUCATION AND YOUR TIME. BILL

If you do not have PowerPoint, you can get a free PowerPoint compatible program from OpenOffice called Impress.  If you go to http://www.OpenOffice.org and download and install their package, it will include Impress.  Installing it should solve the problem that this thread is addressing.

You can also download PowerPointViewer.exe from Microsoft downloads (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads). Download the viewer for Powerpoint 2007, as it will read all versions.