How to send .exe files in gmail

You must have noticed that Gmail and even some other mail services do not allow you to send files with certain extensions. Some of these file extensions include:

“.ade”, “.adp”, “.bat”, “.chm”, “.cmd”, “.com”, “.cpl”, “.exe”, “.hta”, “.ins”, “.isp”, “.jse”, “.lib”, “.mde”, “.msc”, “.msp”, “.mst”, “.pif”, “.scr”, “.sct”, “.shb”, “.sys”, “.vb”, “.vbe”, “.vbs”, “.vxd”, “.wsc”, “.wsf”, “.wsh”

You must have tried to zip the file and then send it again. Even that will not work. You will get the message:

Gtalk.zip contains an executable file. For security reasons, GMail does not allow you to send this type of file.

Other alternative for sending such file formats would be to upload the file in a file sharing site and then send the link over to your friend that would allow him to download that file from there. But it has got a disadvantage. The file becomes public. Anyone would be able to download it and in case the file is confidencial, you would certainly not want anyone accessing it.  These might not be worthy at times. Here is a small tweak that you could do in order to send the above mentioned file formats via Gmail or other mail services.

Step 1:

In Control Panel [Windows Explorer>Tools],  go to Folder Options tab. Go to View. Under Advanced settings, untick “Hide extensions for known file types” and click Apply to save the changes done.

Step 2:

Now rename the file that you want to share over the mail. E.g.: Here I am taking the file vlc.exe. Now remove the .exe from the file and rename it to any other extension type [Example: .jpg,.mp3, .txt or anything else other than the ones mentioned above] . When you are prompted with the below given message, Click on yes. The file type and its extension changes.

Step 3:

Now attach the file again to in your mail and send it to whomever you had to. Your mail will be sent successfully. That’s it.

Note: Make sure that you ask your friend to follow the Step 1 as written above [To rename the file to its original extension i.e. .exe] as he would need to change the file format to .exe once he receives it, else the file will not work. Hide extensions for known file types should be un-ticked in his PC as well to make the changes.