outlook attachments

Run your anti-virus program !

Verify you have all Outlook updates/service packs installed.

Check the settings in outlook, you may have one that disallows opening attachments.

Check your virus scan settings, same as above.

Try to reinstall Outlook over the current installation. If that doesn't work try to uninstall then reinstall a fresh copy.

I've seen this happen when an email has a very large attachment and it takes a while to download from the server. I would recommend three things:

1. Disable the preview pane. If the preview pane is enabled, the entire email and attachment must be downloaded before Outlook will respond.

2. Right-click on the column headings and select "Customize Current View". Click the "Fields" button, add "Size" and OK out through the menus. This way you can see just how big your emails are before you try to open them.

3. When you open Outlook, if the preview pane is enabled and this email is the one that is highlighted, you may not have any choice but wait for the attachment to download. I've seen this take up to 90 minutes on a slow link with a large attachment. I always estimate 10 minutes per megabyte over a 56k link.

Check size of mailbox if it is excessive the computer does not have the resources to open attachments. Clean out the temp folder as tmp files are created when outlook attachmnets are opened and they sometimes cause issues. If mailbox is large create pst and archive.