Alan's HINTS & TIPS - Why some attachments don't work

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Why some attachments don't work

As you may have discovered, it takes time for people to learn all about computers, and they sometimes send you things which don't work when you get them!!!

If someone sends you an attachment which doesn't seem to do anything, it could be due to one of the following:

They MAY have copied just the 'shortcut' to the item they wanted to send, in which case you will NOT get the item they intended. The 'shortcut' only works on THEIR computer as it directs the computer to 'fetch' the item from the directory it is stored in.
If only the 'shortcut' is attached to your e-mail, then you don't get the whole thing!!
Does the attachment have "Shortcut to xyz", or "mypicture.lnk" maybe? (.lnk suffix indicates it is a link). You may have to right-click it and check 'Properties' to find out.
They may have sent you something that was made using software that is on their computer and NOT on yours. It may be dependent on the 'parent' program before it can work. Not all files can work on their own and if your computer doesn't have the same software it could fail to work.

Animated pictures files such as .GIF do not always work as animations with all viewers but should be OK on your Internet Browser which is generally the default method of viewing (unless other software has been installed that over-rides your browser option).
Other things you have been sent are small picture files which are only part of what was intended to be sent.

EXAMPLES:
Someone might decide to send you a picture which is currently on their screen from the Internet.     They probably do a right-click on the page and select 'Save-As' or 'Save Background' and give it a name.      (They probably don't check the picture to see what it's OK before they send it off).
What might actually happen is this:
The picture they are looking at could be one of two things.

[A]    The background of the screen which can often be made up from a smaller picture which is replicated till it fills the entire screen area.
The picture which makes up the screen may be a small rectangular shape and it matches up horizontally and vertically just like a wallpaper pattern.
The main text and other information is displayed in front of this.

[B]    Alternatively, the original picture may be very shallow vertically, but filling the entire width of the screen.     When it replicates down the screen it fills it totally.    Similarly, it could be very deep but narrow picture, filling the screen horizontally when it replicates.      There are lot's of tricks.

Saving the picture in any of these cases will only give you a small section of the entire screen backgound.      This method of producing the background is useful as it saves downloading huge picture files.

See Backgrounds - how they are made up from smaller pictures.

See also What do I use to open this?

and What suffix is this for?