Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

Using Windows Mail

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Changing Windows Mail Security Settings

By default, to protect you from viruses, Windows Mail treats all email as though it

is from a restricted site. As discussed in the “Restricting Permissions Using Secu-

rity Zones” section of Chapter 7, this setting ensures that Windows Mail uses the

maximum safeguards and disables all types of potentially unsafe content. To pre-

vent certain types of phishing and marketing scams as well as nefarious programs,

Windows Mail also blocks images and other types of external content in HTML

email automatically. In most cases, this is the best configuration to safeguard your

computer and your data. With these settings, very few viruses can slip through. Plus,

if you are sure an email is from a safe sender, you can right-click an image or other

type of blocked external content in a message and then select Download to display

the blocked contents.

You can use the Security tab in the Windows Mail Options dialog box to change set-

tings for virus protection and secure email. To access and configure the Security tab

options, follow these steps:

1. In Windows Mail, click Tools, and then click Options.

2. In the Options dialog box, click the Security tab, as shown in Figure 16-9.

3. For virus protection, select either the less secure Internet zone or the highly

secure Restricted sites zone as the Internet Explorer security zone to use.

4. By default, Windows Mail warns you whenever another program tries to send

email as you. This option is designed to protect other people from a virus that

has infected your computer and is trying to spread itself through email. Clear the

“Warn Me...” option if you don’t want to be warned when other applications

Figure 16-8. Setting phishing filter options

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Chapter 16: Using Windows Mail, Calendars, and Contacts

try to send email as you. Otherwise, leave this option selected to help protect

other people from viruses that spread themselves through email.

5. By default, any suspect attachments in messages are blocked so that they can’t

be saved or opened. Clear the “Do not allow attachments...” checkbox if you

want to allow all attachments to be saved and opened. Otherwise, leave this

option selected to help protect your computer and your data.

6. By default, images and other external content are blocked to help protect your

computer. Clear the “Block images...” checkbox if you always want images and

other external content to be displayed. Otherwise, leave this option selected to

help protect your computer and your data.

7. Click OK to save your settings.

Figure 16-9. Setting additional security options for Windows Mail