4 Easy Ways to Send a Blocked File in E-mail

Thanks to viruses and other malicious software, it's harder to do simple things with our PCs today than it was a dozen years ago. For example, you might occasionally need to e-mail an executable file (like one that ends in .exe) to someone.

Not so fast -- most e-mail programs block files with an exe extension because they are potentially malicious. What to do? Here are four simple strategies for sending attachments which would otherwise be blocked.

MakeUseOf rounded up these four ways to send blocked e-mail attachments. At one time or another, I've used every one of them, so I know they work.

1. Store the file in the cloud. Don't e-mail the file at all; post it on DropBox or SkyDrive or some other online storage location, and then send your coworker an e-mail to tell him or her where to collect it.

2. Zip the file. Instead of attaching the exe (or other blocked file), add it to a zip and attach that file to your e-mail. Most of the time, that'll solve the problem, but some e-mail services (like Gmail) actually sniff out the contents of zip files and will block it anyway. So this one is not guaranteed to work.

3. Change the file extension. If you open Folder Options in Control Panel and stop hiding extensions for know files, you can change the exe extension to something else. Your e-mail program will no longer know it's an embargoed file type, and you can e-mail it. Of course, the recipient will need to fix the extension on the other side of the trip, so be sure to include directions in the e-mail message.

4. Add a fake extension. Similar to tip #3, you can add a new extension, so you might change foo.exe to foo.exe.dummy. Again, be sure to explain to the recipient to remove the fake extension in order for the file to work properly.

Photo by marc kjerland