In free email accounts- I cannot open attachments.

I cannot open any attachments in my FREE email accounts like Yahoo etc.
Attachments like Word docs etc.
It used to open for so many years - till a few weeks ago.

But I can open them in my Outlook Express. Here I have a paid email
account.

These are very small attachments So yahoo etc should not have any size problems.

It says IE cannot download from ......

Why is that ?

I have a Win Me PC.

can any one pls. help...BTW I am not technical.

regards,

Anna