I am running Windows XP and use Outlook Express for e-mail. Although I never open e-mail I don’t recognize, I discovered that I can view e-mails and all information by right-clicking on the e-mail and selecting Properties. The e-mail header remains selected as though it has not been opened.

Is my computer being exposed to viruses by viewing e-mails this way?

-Marty Phillips cox.net

Your inquiry serves to either clear up or increase a lot of confusion over handling possibly dangerous e-mail messages in Outlook Express, Mr. P. The last time this column took up the murky issue of avoiding attacks by way of e-mail messages, I added to the heat rather than shedding light by approaching the subject a bit backwards.

A recent question from reader Al Steenson asked for help fixing an Outlook Express problem that would not allow his computer to display fancy attachments, graphics and such in newly arrived messages, which he wanted to see. Far more commonly this question is asked by people who want to shut that stuff off, rather than to encourage it.

People worry – as they should – that some kind of booby trap may be tucked away in these rich-content e-mails. When I approached it from the other side – by allowing these things to be displayed – a lot of folks got confused.

Whether you love them or hate them, Outlook Express uses the same settings to toggle e-mail attachments and other rich content on or off. Most of these settings are reached by clicking on Tools and then Options in the OE display. Look for the tabs for Read and Security. A number of check boxes there let you force all messages to come in as text-only and to block all incoming graphics and other embellishments that conceivably carry viruses like the notorious “Klez.”

You check and uncheck boxes based on your estimation of the risk. Since one can always go back and change these settings by adding or removing check marks, it’s safe enough to experiment a bit to see what fits best for you.

And what a better way to feel things out than to use that little trick you mention where one right-clicks on a message in the Outlook Express display and then selects Properties.

In OE 6.0, this brings up a pair of windows. The first, called General, shows all the information about sending times, addresses and routings. There also is a box marked Details that brings up a Message Source button that strips all of the hot links and other stuff, making it safe to open even nasty booby-trapped stuff.

You can even paint this harmless text and copy it into a word processor to get all the words and none of the wonkery. It’s an excellent suggestion, Mr. F., and I thank you as I am sure will many readers.

Let me add that if you are going to do this it’s a good idea to also disable the Preview Pane in Outlook Express that displays the content of each selected message below the list of headers. Click on View and Layout to find the toggles for this feature that is both extremely useful and potentially dangerous.

When receiving pictures (JPG files) by e-mail, we used to be able to open them directly through Windows Viewer. This was a quick and easy way to review them. Since installing Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, the photos now open through Adobe PhotoShop. This means that the program has to launch, and then it takes several keystrokes to close the picture.

I would like to reset Windows Viewer so it opens the pictures. Can you give me some help and directions on how to reset this?

Ken Asche, Washington Boro, Pa.

You have what is called a file association problem, Mr. A.

Find an icon for any of those picture files and give it a right-click. In the pop-up menu this summons there will be an option of Open With.

Pick that option and you’ll get a box with a list of all of the programs that are available on the computer, with those Microsoft deems most likely to fit the selected file on top. You almost certainly will find the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer in that list.

Now look for the check box below the list that lets you stipulate that all other files of that type will be opened with your selected program in the future.

The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is, hands down, the best program for cursory examination of image files. It not only opens picture files, but by clicking on plus and minus tools, the image will be enlarged or shrunk. Right and left arrows let users rotate pictures around the compass, and a slide show option can order all images in the folder where the selected file resides to be displayed.

By right-clicking on an image in this module of Windows you can copy files to other folders, delete them, rename them and perform other tasks to manage the pictures on the machine.

Jim Coates writes for the Chicago Tribune.

NASA Web site as my home page, and like to save the great pictures of stars and galaxies as my desktop wallpaper. When I used Netscape 4.7 as my browser, I could browse the JPEG files from Web Wallpaper and save them on the Control Panel drop-down list of wallpaper choices, and see the preview before applying the file.

Now I’m using Netscape 7.0. When I try to perform these maneuvers, the file appears on the drop-down menu as a bitmap file opened with MS Paint (even though it’s saved as a JPEG and is supposed to open with Netscape), does not appear as a preview, and doesn’t save in the drop-down menu (although it still appears as my desktop wallpaper). Any suggestions?

-Mariss McTucker, Dixon, Mont.

A. The culprit usually is a bit of code designed to run animations of Web sites when browsers act like yours. Whether the browser is Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer or some other flavor, the bit of bad code will suddenly force the browser to insist that every picture file it opens is in the bulky BMP format instead of its actual format.

In the latest Netscape versions, clear out the cache of Web pages along with the trouble-causing animations they seem to include. To do this click on Edit and then Preferences in the drop-down menu. Select the Advanced category and you will find a Cache heading.

A second thing to check with Netscape is that the browser is set to access all formats of pictures. This setting is under the Privacy and Security heading on that same Preferences menu. Open Privacy and Security and click on the Images choice. There select the Accept All Images box.

In Microsoft’s browser the commands are under Tools and then Internet Options. Under the tab for General on the menu this summons, click on the Delete Files button to clean out the cache of the problem components.

I suggest that you jot down a note about these steps because there is a strong chance that the problem is coming from a Web site you use regularly and, if this is the case, it will return.

(Contact Jim Coates at jcoatestribune.com, or at the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at www.chicagotribune.com/askjim.)

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AP-NY-01-05-05 0620EST