Let's take a step back then.

Do you receive some mail that you can open? Outlook Express isn't completely dead in the water?

Does your email open with html stuff showing (do people send fancy lettering and backgrounds that you can see?) or do you have it set for text only?

Do you have Adobe Reader installed? The most common form of attachment I receive from people is a PDF (Portable Document Format) and it opens a free program called Adobe Reader. You can go to Adobe and download the latest version 7.0.

Other attachments can come for various Macromedia products (Flash, etc.) or Microsoft products (Powerpoint, Excel, etc.). If you don't have their office suite those programs can go unopened, though I know that at least there is a Powerpoint viewer you can download from Microsoft.

SRS