Gmail ^[1] and many other email providers disallow users from sending email with .exe (executable files) and many other file types including .class (java compiled files) or any other compiled files, or any other type of files that can be remotely executed when someone downloads them.

In addition to that it also blocks zip compressed files which contains executable or compiled files. Though this is done for security reasons, it can get annoying at times.

Is there a way around this? Yes these is, not one but two different ways.

The first way according to Lost In Technology ^[2] is to rename the file to something else and then attach it to email, this works good enough.

However there is another way to do this, you can also archive the files using RAR compression ^[3], here is a simple test we ran, where we zipped a files called csstidy.exe into both zip and RAR archives.

The files were uploaded properly, however the email was not sent out since Gmail detected the executable file in the compressed zip file, however since RAR is a proprietary algorithm, Gmail does not have any means to scan the .rar files.

This is a tip for people who want to send executables or compiled files using Gmail, however if you are on the receiving end of such a email with a .rar attachment, make sure to scan it before you use it, since it may contain viruses or spywares.

If you are unsure how to do it, visit our earlier post on Online Security Tips How do you keep your computer secure and safe ^[4], if you are interested in reading more tips and tricks ^[5] for Gmail, don’t forget to visit the Gmail Tips ^[6] section.