A lot of you probably have Gmail as your primary email account, and it frustrates you that you have to use another email service when attaching executable (exe) files in your mail. Though Gmail does it for "security reasons", it is no excuse since they have an anonymous virus scanner (they haven't named which AV they're using) to scan attachments. But now, there is a solution to send executable attachments in Gmail! I accidently stumbled across this idea, and it takes you, the sender, and the recepient to do a little trick before you can send and recieve EXE's. Read on to find out how I stumbled across this idea, and how you can send EXE's!

So, this is how I stumbled across this idea. I was trying to embed a swf (flash) file on my MySpace that would play music. But MySpace, as arrogant as it is, started blocking the file and displayed the actual source code instead. I tried removing the .swf extension, uploading the file to a host and embedding it. Worked like magic! And suddenly I had an idea. Yep, you guessed it, an idea for sending EXE files with Gmail.

View menuFirstly, you have to go to your Control Panel and look for "Folder Options". This can alternatively be accessed from the "My Computer" or Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer!) "tools" menu. After the menu pops up, click on the "View" tab. Look for the option "Hide extensions for known file types" (highlighted in blue in the picture) and unckeck it. Click Apply, and then OK. Now, you will see the extension ".exe" in every executable file on your PC.

Now, the neat trick I was talking about. Rename the executable you want to attach in Gmail to ".jpg". For eg. if the file you want to send is "Blindows.exe", rename it to "Blindows.jpg". If the executable is large, you can Zip it. But remember to do this neat trick before zipping it.

Your recepient has to do the next part of this neat trick. Ask him/her/it to download the recieved file, do the renaming trick on his/her/its PC. For eg. ask him/her/it to rename the recieved file back to "Blindows.jpg" to "Blindows.exe". Now, attach the file and wear an evil smile on your face because you've fooled Gmail into attaching an executable file.

Note: This trick can be done on any email service that does not support certain file types. Just do the renaming trick to change the extension to a supported file type.

Warning: Be sure to scan executable files you recieve with a trusted Anti-Virus software. You never know when a script kiddie would misuse this neat trick.

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