Outlook Express

Outlook Express is an email and account applicant that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is additionally arranged with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is accessible for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9. In Windows Vista, Outlook Express was abolished by Windows Mail, afresh again by Windows Live Mail as abstractedcomputer appliance in Windows 7. Microsoft Entourage, awash as allotment of Microsoft Office for Macintosh, has replaced the Macintosh version.

Outlook Express is a altered appliance from Microsoft Office Outlook. The two programs do not allotment a accepted codebase, but do allotment a accepted architectural philosophy. The agnate names advance abounding bodies to afield achieve that Outlook Express is a stripped-down adaptation of Microsoft Office Outlook. Outlook Express uses the Windows Address Book to abundance acquaintance advice and integrates deeply with it. On Windows XP, it additionally integrates with Windows Messenger.

Versions for Windows

Outlook Express 4.0, which was included in Windows 98 (June 1998), stored letters in *.mbx files (similar to the Mbox architecture acclimated in Unix based systems).

Outlook Express 5.0, which was included in Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) (June 1999), switched to *.dbx files, with a abstracted book for anniversary mailbox folder.

Outlook Express 5.0 was included in Windows 2000 (February 2000).

Outlook Express 5.5 was included in Windows Me (June 2000).

Outlook Express 6.0 was included in Windows XP (October 2001).

Outlook Express 6.0 SP2 was included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (August 2004).

Outlook Express 6.0 SP3 was included in Windows XP Service Pack 3 (April 2008).

See also: Windows Mail

Handling of PGP/MIME signed messages

Outlook Express does not accurately handle MIME,10 and will not affectation the anatomy of active letters inline. Users get a bare e-mail and two accessories (one of the bulletin argument and one of the signature) and accordingly charge to accessible an adapter to see the e-mail. If the email has been forwarded several times, users charge to accessible absorbed email letters one central the added assorted times to ability the ancestor e-mail message. This bug has still not been rectified. The able behavior is declared in RFC1847. When acknowledging or forwarding a bulletin to a user who has a agenda signature, Outlook Express gives an absurdity and does not acquiesce the user to abide if there is no agenda signature installed for the sender.11

Extensibility

Outlook Express does not accept a accurate article archetypal like Microsoft Office Outlook. Programmatic admission to, or ascendancy of Outlook Express for custom messaging applications or plugins is not clearly accurate and accurate by Microsoft.12 IStoreNamespace and IStoreFolder interfaces 13 were accurate in 2003, but they are alone accompanying to the storage.

Some companies accept managed to actualize their plugins hacking the interface application Windows hooks. A cogent one was the PGP plugin because it was the alone archetype of a alive plugin whose antecedent cipher was accessible (licensed beneath GPL). By 2003, some companies provided bartering solutions to advance add-ins14.

Office 2007 spell checker incompatibility

Outlook Express does not accept a committed spell checker. It can use the spell checkers from Microsoft Office if Office is additionally installed. However, the Office 2007 spell checkers, except for the French spell checker, are adverse with Outlook Express. Microsoft has accustomed this problem,15 but does not accommodate any array of remedy. A band-aid is to install any pre-Office 2007 proofing accoutrement or use a third affair spell blockage affairs for Outlook Express. Windows Live Mail, which is based on Outlook Express's antecedent code, contains congenital spell blockage abutment (now for US English and abundant added languages) and is advisedly downloadable for Windows XP.

Glitches and other unusual aspects

Cancelling sending an email while it is actuality beatific does not finer anticipate it from actuality sent.16 Also, back importing .PST files, cancelling the acceptation while it is in advance alone cancels the acceptation of the accepted binder and the acceptation resumes with the abutting folder.