Wang Kai

For some security reasons, Gmail does not allow the user to send executable files (for example, exe). When you send an exe file as an attachment, probably following window will pop up:

This error window also pops up even you compress your file into .zip format, prompting you that “<yourfile>.zip contains an executable file. For security reasons, Gmail does not allow you to send this type of file.”

So, how can we send the executable file in Gmail as an attachment? There are many tricks for this, and I’m listing two of the simplest here:

1. Renaming Extention: rename your file to different extension (for example, change “file.exe” to something else such as file.jpg, file.dat, or even file.abc. The file with modified extension should be able to get through Gmail and reach your receipent’s mailbox.

After the receipent recieves the file, he would have to rename the extension file back to “.exe”.

2. Compress into .rar: while compressing the file into .zip format doesn’t help, compressing it into .rar format indeed works! Execution file compressed with WinRAR may be send over via Gmail successfully.

If your computer is equiped with WinRAR, and the receipent is able to open up the RAR files too, then just do it!

Besides above mentioned two easy methods, there are some other ways, but personally I think they are too complicated to be carried out, especially for some normal people who doesn’t know computer well.

In case you don’t know How to rename file with different extension, follow this (for windows user only):

1. Go to Folder Options (Control Panel > Folder Options)
2. In View tab, uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types

If you are a Unix/Linux user,I don’t think renaming would be a problem for you . If you have some other better methods in doing this, feel free to leave a comment below.