If I choose to open an email attachment, will it be saved on my hard drive too?
Probably, but it can vary depending on which e-mail software you’re using. Most of the time, desktop e-mail clients (as opposed to web mail services like Yahoo! Mail) will download the entire message — including attachments — to your hard drive before you ever see it. Then if you delete the message, it (usually) goes away. If you choose to open the attachment, you’re often given a choice of whether to save it or just open it — but even just opening it means it’s been saved somewhere, usually a temporary cache. Sometimes, though, those “temporary” caches stick around for a long time. With web mail services, you do have to download the attachment before viewing it — though in that case, your browser will probably put it in the same kind of temporary cache unless you choose to save it somewhere.
