On Mar 18, 2004 Bob Lawrence wrote to Rod Gasson:

BL>  I thought that was the problem... that M$ Explorer will run cookies
BL> and crap like that, without you even knowing.

Nothing can run a cookie, it is not an executable. Explorer can only
execute code and then only if you explicitly tell it to do so.

BL> If you've loaded Java,
BL> you don't an executable.

A Java runtime is an executable as are any Java applications.

RG> You cannot get a virus simply by reading email
RG> (unless you happen to be using one of the old versions of
RG> MSoutlook that foolishly enabled email attachments to be run
RG> without user intervention).

BL>  I thought M$ had just admitted that you can override that via
BL> Windows itself.

Windows, the operating system, is not able to override Outlook to force it
to run scripts in its preview pane. Outlook never ran attachments
automatically, at least not without an embedded script to launch it.

RG> The only way to get a virus infection is by actually RUNNING a
RG> virus infected executable. If people stopped doing this,
RG> viruses would cease to exist !!!! The fact that there are so
RG> many virus's around these days is testomony that the majority
RG> of computer users are basically idiots!!

Agreed. I am sure if I sent an attachment to some of the people at work and
labelled it FORMAT.EXE they would still launch it.

Best wishes,
Malcolm

--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+