I recieved an email from a friend containing an attachment with the end being .dat I need to know how to open this type of file. A box comes up on the screen that asks me which program I want to use to open it, and I have no idea which one I should use or if I even have an appropriate program. Please let me know how to open this asap. Thanks!

Is this a winmail.dat attachment?

If this is the case, downlaod and unzip WMDecode.zip

Run the program with the filename of the winmail.dat file as the first argument - or drag a winmail.dat file onto the WMDecode icon

putasolutions: yes, it is a winmail.dat attachment. I clicked on your link, and the window came up that I guess is the unzipping program. How do you run the program with the filename wilmail.dat as the first argument? When I click on the link, the window just comes up and it doesn't give me a chance to type in anything. It says that it cannot locate the file. But I never typed a file in! Please give me further instruction. Thanks!

save the attachment to the same folder as the folder that you extracted the WMdecode to

Now open that folder, left click and drag the attachment over the WMdecode.exe file and release

The decoded file is then placed in that folder

Word of the wise: Be weary of e-mail attachments.. especially those with a .dat file extension. But, if you were expecting it.. then I guess it's okay.

Thanks for the word of advice Chris. I am very careful about attachments since one caused my computer to crash last year. I wasn't expecting this, but it was from a very good friend of mine, so I trust it.

Did you manage to open it, Sarah?

No, I never could. I couldn't get it to work.

You can Notepad or Word.

I must learn to proof read, prior to submitting. My post should read
You can use Notepad or Word

quote:

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Originally posted by qagal:
I must learn to proof read, prior to submitting. My post should read
You can use Notepad or Word

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Hi qagal
Welcome to Answerpool.
You can edit postings up to 1 hour after posting. Note the 3 yellow icons in the corner. The "Edit" icon is the center icon and only appears on only your posts (only other person who can edit is Admin) Click this to return to the "write-in " page

The only problem is that attachments are normally UUEncoded. Wordpad and/or Notepad will show a bunch of useless garbage.