Microsoft Outlook Express

Outlook Express, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Mail and News, is a discontinued email and news client included with Internet Explorer versions 3.0 through to 6.0. As such, it was bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and was available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95, Mac System 7, Mac OS 8, and Mac OS 9. In Windows Vista, Outlook Express was superseded by Windows Mail.

Outlook Express is a different application from Microsoft Outlook. The two programs do not share a common codebase, but they do share a common architectural philosophy. The similar names lead many people to conclude incorrectly that Outlook Express is a stripped-down version of Microsoft Outlook. Outlook Express uses the Windows Address Book to store contact information and integrates tightly with it. On Windows XP, it also integrates with Windows Messenger.

History

Version 1.0 was released as ''Microsoft Internet Mail and News'' in 1996 following the Internet Explorer 3 release. This add-on precedes the ''Internet Mail'' profile for Microsoft Exchange 4.0 bundled in Windows 95. Version 2.0 was released at the end of 1996. Internet Mail and News handled only plain text and rich text ( RTF) email, lacking HTML email.

In 1997 the program was changed and renamed to ''Outlook Express'' and bundled with Internet Explorer 4. The Windows executable file for Outlook Express, ''msimn.exe'', is a holdover from the Internet Mail and News era. Like Internet Explorer, Outlook Express 4 can run on Mac System 7, OS 8, and OS 9.

At one point, in a later beta version of Outlook Express 5, Outlook Express contained a sophisticated and adaptive spam filtering system; however this feature was removed shortly before launch. It was speculated on various websites and newsgroups at that time, that the feature was not stable enough for the mass market. Nearly two years later, a similar system, using a similar method of adaptive filtering, appeared as a feature of Microsoft Outlook.

Internet Explorer 5 required Outlook Express 5 to save Web Archive files (see MHTML).

Outlook Express 6 is the last version of the software with Outlook branding. It has a similar layout to Outlook Express 5. It was included with Windows XP.

Supported file formats

* .DBX – Outlook Express Email Folder
*.EMAIL - Outlook Express Email Message
* .EML - E-Mail Message
* .IDX - Outlook Express Mailbox Index File
* .MBX - Outlook Express Mailbox
* .MIM - Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Message File
* .MIME - Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extension
* .MS-TNEF - MS Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format
* .NCH - Outlook Express Folder File
* .ODS - Outlook Express 5 Mailbox (not to be confused with OpenDocument spreadsheet file)
* .OEB - Outlook Express Backup Wizard File
* .PAB - Personal Address Book
* .PST - Outlook Personal Information Store File
* .SIG - Signature File
* .VCF - vCard File
* .WAB - Windows Address Book

Versions for Windows

* Microsoft Internet Mail and News 1.0 was released in 1996 with Internet Explorer 3.
* Microsoft Internet Mail and News 2.0 was released later in 1996.
* Outlook Express 4.0, which was included in Windows 98 (June 1998) and integrated with Internet Explorer 4, stored messages in *.mbx files (similar to the Mbox format used in Unix-based systems).
* Outlook Express 5.0, which was included in Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) (June 1999) and integrated with Internet Explorer 5, switched to *.dbx files, with a separate file for each mailbox folder.
* Outlook Express 5.01 was included in Windows 2000 (February 2000) and integrated with Internet Explorer 5.01.
* Outlook Express 5.5 was included in Windows Me (June 2000) and integrated with Internet Explorer 5.5.
* Outlook Express 6.0 was included in Windows XP (October 2001) and integrated with Internet Explorer 6.

Versions for Mac

* Outlook Express 4.0 was included in Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition.
* Outlook Express 5.01 was integrated with Internet Explorer 5.
* Outlook Express 5.01 was bundled with Internet Explorer 5.01.
* Outlook Express 5.5 was bundled with Internet Explorer 5.5.

Replacements

Builds of "Outlook Express 7" appeared in early builds of Windows Vista when in development as "Longhorn". It relied on WinFS for the management and storage of contacts and other data.

The final version of Vista included a successor to Outlook Express known as Windows Mail (Vista).

Criticism

Email standards

Beginning with the text-based Unix Mail command, email traditionally used the inline or bottom posting styles when replying to messages. Outlook Express, as well as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook, top-post (show replies newest to oldest) by default.

Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange use a proprietary