“Scripts” are generally used for displaying things like animations in an email, so most of them are harmless. Sometimes they can be used for malicious purposes, though, like sending viruses to everyone in your address book.
One way to further tighten security in Outlook Express is to disable any scripts that might have been embedded in an email message. This is really easy to do:
- In the Tools menu, select Options, and then select the Security tab.
- Click on the radio button labelled Restricted Sites Zone, and click OK.
To make sure Active Scripting is disabled in the Restricted Sites Zone:
- Open Internet Explorer.
- In the Tools menu, select Internet Options, and then select the Security tab.
- Click on the Restricted Sites icon, and then click on the Custom Level button.
- Scroll down to the section labelled Scripting, then check the setting for Active Scripting and make sure that Disable is selected.
- Click OK twice. That’s it, you’re done!
Making Outlook Express prompt you before running scripts
Getting prompts is another great way to avoid malicious scripts that might come through emails and newsgroups.
These security settings will let you know when you’ve received an email with a script in it, and let you decide whether or not to run it on your system.
- In the Outlook Express Tools menu, click on Options and then select the Security tab.
- Select Restricted Sites Zone and click OK.
- Open the Control Panel and click on Internet Options, then select the Security tab.
- Click on Restricted Zones, and then on the Custom level... button.
- Mark the Prompt option for all the security options as Enabled. Don’t leave anything set to Enabled in the list.
- Click OK. That’s it, you’re done!
After you’ve done this, Outlook Express will always prompt you before it runs any scripts.
By the way, if Outlook Express tells you that a script is "safe", it still might be wrong, so it’s always best to be careful.
