Unable to open word, excel, pdf etc. attachments

I’m using Windows mail as my default email clients for all my Pop3 accounts. I setup this 4 months ago and it was working fine. But now suddenly it started creating problems. Whenever I click any attachment in the mails (especially if it is word, excel or pdf) instead of opening the same, it gives me an error message saying “file cannot be found”.

I never had any such problem before. The only change I remember I don on this pc is I upgraded to Internet explorer 8 two days ago. Could it be the problem? If yes, how can I fix this?

IE8 could be the problem because when you upgraded the same it could have changed the default program settings. So you need to fix it again. Just go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Set Default Programs. Here select Windows mail and click on Set as Default. Once done, refresh the list and do the same for Internet Explorer.

Now to back to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs, click on Set program access and computer defaults." Here choose Custom, and click Internet Explorer. Then Windows Mail & Click OK.Thats it. Now if you restart the your PC it will be good.

This is a simple fix. I tried everything, including changing browsers and email programs, nothing worked. It's NOT the browser update causing the problem. The problem is in Excel's settings! If you have all done the prior suggestions and still can't open Excel files in email without saving first, try this - takes 2 seconds:

• Open New Excel Workbook Program
• Select Tools (Windows Xp), Or In Vista- Program Icon At Top Left
• Select Options Or In Vista - Button At Bottom Right Of List)
• Click On “General” Tab Or In Vista - Scroll Down To "General" Category
• Uncheck "Ignore Other Applications"
• Restart Computer.

Excel files should open in Windows mail ! Worked for me - & sooooo easy!

The article is very helpful! Thank you, I'll be sure to use your advice. Personally, I had some problems converting excel files over to PDF. Then I found this program at my work that quickly and painlessly converts my excel documents into pdf so I didn't have to do it manually (which would end up taking aggravating hours upon hours). It provides my business a simple way to make individualized statements for our business associates.