Q&A: Sending Certain File Types (or Not) By Gmail

Posted on July 16th, 2011 by Natalie Bourne | Tags: Gmail, Types Gmail

Q.

I tried to send a slide show to a friend with my Gmail account, but got a message saying Google doesn’t allow this type of .exe file “for security reasons.” What is this and it there any way I can send this file?

A. Google does not allow its Gmail users to send or receive executable files (.exe) as message attachments, because many viruses and other bits of malicious software are also .exe files. A note on the Gmail Help site says the company also blocks .exe files that have been compressed into .zip, .tar, or .gz formats, as well as more than two dozen other file types that may cause problems.

You do have a few workarounds for sending the .exe file. Some users have reported that just changing the file extension from .exe to something like .txt before uploading it to Gmail will let the file go through. Your recipient, however, will need to change the file name back on the other end.

File-sharing services are another way to send the file to your friend. Several companies offer free basic accounts for sharing files, including YouSendIt, Dropbox and Box.net. Since you already have a Google account, uploading and sharing the file through the Google Docs service (which does accept .exe files) is another option.

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