Configure Microsoft Outlook Express correctly  

Gratuitous Advice #02  (Every care, but no responsibility taken for its use.)

This page was prepared to help some friends to re-configure Microsoft Outlook Express to send text only messages. The wisdom of this is explained briefly below. The internet can be a better place if better practices, like this one, are observed.

Index

• Rationale for this page
• Configure Outlook Express
• What caused the problem A potted history.

Rationale for this page

There are two main reasons with associated benefits for configuring Microsoft Outlook Express to send text only messages. It makes sending e-mail both safer and cheaper.

Sending safer e-mail

As explained on the page encouraging safer file transfer several friends recently had their PCs attacked by Kakworm which, along with similar 'viruses' is commonly transmitted within the HTML version of the e-mail that the infected PC sends. If all PCs on the internet were kept meticulously clean of infection this would not be a problem. Alas, it only takes a few careless users. So it behoves us all to adopt safe e-mail practices.

Safety advice:  Apart from avoiding Windows PCs for e-mail (which is normally what the author does) the user should:

• maintain and run current and appropriately configured anti-virus software to trap incoming 'viruses' and to scan attachments before sending. (Click for advice)
• set the e-mail client, especially the vulnerable Outlook Express to send text messages only and so avoid forwarding this kind of 'virus'. (See below)

If one needs to send an HTML file for a particular reason it can be attached to the e-mail message in the normal way after scanning it to ensure it contains no nasty surprises.

Save money and time

Greatly reduce e-mail traffic, save time and money, and keep friends by configuring Outlook Express to send text messages only. 'Keeping friends' is mentioned because it does strain relationships a bit when the innocent receiver is continually bombarded with two versions of all mail that one sends.

Outlook Express as normally configured generates and sends an HTML (Web page) version of the text of the e-mail message. The HTML version is larger than the original so the whole size of the double message is more than twice what it needs to be. This makes sending and receiving e-mail a much lengthier and more expensive task than it should be.

Users in many places (e.g. United Kingdom, some parts of rural Australia) have timed telephone links to the Point of Presence of their Internet Service Provider. The way the two major carriers in Australia are positioning themselves at the moment could easily lead to a redefinition on 'local' so that most could have timed calls. Even without timed calls many Internet Service Providers charge for the time online. (Hence the recent popularity of 'Free' ISP services!) Keeping e-mail transmission time to a minimum makes good sense as well as being good etiquette.

Some reasons why Outlook Express sends both versions of the message are given later in the section What caused the problem. Primarily it is to allow messages to include formatting and effects such as italics which are not possible in normal text files. However 95% of the HTML sent has no such enhancement, nor is it needed. The most frequently seen examples of the use of e-mail with eye-catching effects are the unsolicited advertising messages that are sent by spammers as attached HTML files.

Savings advice:  Save sender and receiver time, money and frustration by:

• configuring Outlook Express to send text messages only.

Using the same principle of keeping the size of e-mail messages as small as possible it is poor etiquette to attach large files to e-mail. Everyone knows that it is always when one logs on to check mail urgently that someone has sent a 300K attachment! More advice on sending big files can be found here.

General Moral:  For safety and savings configure Outlook Express to send text messages only.

Configure Outlook Express

The information given here simply advises users of Outlook Express how to configure it to send text only messages. Most experienced users already know and will have done this.

Please note that othe E-Mail clients (e.g. Eudora) can be configured similarly.

The images seen here are taken from Outlook Express (versions 5.50 or 6.00) from Microsoft Windows Me. Earlier versions from Windows 95 or 98 are similar.

Step 1 — Select the configuration options from Outlook Express After loading Outlook Express: Click on the Tools item of the top menu bar. (Figure 1 — A) Then click on the Options ... item. (Figure 1 — B)
	Figure 1  Select Options

Step 2 — Set the Send options for Outlook Express On the Options panel displayed after Step 1: Click the Send tag of the menu bar. (Figure 2 — A) Set both the Mail Sending and News Sending Format by clicking the Plain Text buttons. (Figure 2 — B & C) Check (tick) or uncheck the boxes according to preference. It is recommended that the 'Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent' box is left unchecked.

Figure 2  Set sending format

Step 3 — Configure the Plain Text Settings While the Options panel (Figure 2) is displayed: Click, in turn, on the Plain Text Settings for Mail and News. (Figure 2 — D & E) Set the items as seen in Figure 3. Namely the Message format to MIME (Figure 3 — A) and the Encode Text item to None (Figure 3 — B). Click OK on this panel for both the Mail and News. In the case of News Sending Format the user may prefer to set the Message format to Uuencode as this format is recognized by older News reading clients. Click OK at the bottom of the Options panel (Figure 2) to complete setting Outlook Express.

Figure 3  Plain Text Settings

Step 4 — Do not allow Outlook Express to open attachments Steps 1 to 3 reduced your risk of sending 'nasties'. Now to help you avoid receiving them. On the Options panel displayed after Step 1: Click the Security tag of the menu bar. (Figure 4 — A) Click on the 'Do not allow attachments ...' box so it shows a Check (Tick) mark. (Figure 4 — B) Click on Apply and then OK. Now neither Outlook Express nor you should be able to open risky attachments. When you are sure that an attachment is one that you safely need/want go back to Tools > Options and temporarily uncheck (untick) this item and click Apply. Go back to Outlook Express and do what you will with attachment and be sure to once more set Outlook Express to deny attachment opening.

Figure 4  Deny attachment opening

Other useful configuration advice

Two other pieces of advice that most wise users (if such there are!) of Outlook Express follow are:

How did we get HTML for e-mail messaging when it is not suitable?

• A few years after a powerful CEO in the NW of the USA had asked "What is a network?" and at the same time others were promoting the internet and he kept pouring scorn on the initiative his company appears to have become enamoured with Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) for use as a document format portable across all computers and operating systems. The use of the more universal XML is another matter.
• The search for a portable document format had been prompted by Adobe's development of its Portable Document Format (PDF) which allows every reader on every platform to view and print the document in exactly the same format.
• Competitors in the capitalist system, especially in the USA, seem pathologically opposed to co-operating to improve a good International Standard, but prefer by any means to corrupt that standard for their own benefit, or develop one of their own.
• All computer standards including HTML, and its enhancements and extensions, are supposed to follow International Standards as controlled by an authority.
• PDF is a tightly controlled standard of that kind.
• PDF and HTML both have there place and are suitable for different purposes.
• Microsoft included a browser with its operating system (This was later subject to court appeals.) in the belief that HTML would become the lingua franca of document distribution on networks, including the internet. It is at the moment unsurpassed for communicating on the Web and for delivering documents where format, style and effect are not critical (e.g. on-line manuals).
• HTML has significant deficiencies for some kinds of document delivery. Formatting is difficult or impossible to control. The page viewed on screen differs from that printed. It appears differently from one browser to another and on the same browser configured differently.
• The more complex the formatting et cetera in the HTML file the larger it becomes.
• The vast majority of messages sent by e-mail do not benefit enough from the dubious formatting and effects provided by HTML for it to be worth the massive increase in bandwidth demanded. E-mail's attraction is for quick messaging around the world and should not contribute to the 'World Wide Wait'.

  How did HTML files become potential Trojan horses for some 'viruses'?

• During the past decade several 'script' languages have been developed that can 'run' activities on a remote computer. The most commonly encountered are: Java, JavaScript (this is a misnomer as it has nothing to do with Java and should be called ECMAScript) and ActiveX.
• Java was developed to run in a piece of software (a Java Virtual Machine (JVM)) on any platform. This makes the activity cross-platform portable. It is very useful and almost virus free because of the nature of the JVMs). (As an aside Sun has just won a big court case against Microsoft to stop them developing it against the International Standards.) Examples of such Java-based activities can be seen on my Population page (A kitsch active header and links menu, but a useful Population clock).
• JavaScript is Netscape's implementation of the specification of ECMAScript, the standard set by the European Computer Manufacturers' Association (ECMA). (If I remember correctly Netscape began this script which is probably why it is the generic name.) Microsoft's is called JScript. They all differ a bit. JavaScript is valuable for all sorts of active displays (like dates, clocks, rolling and information) in web pages. It is not usually associated with virus problems.
• ActiveX was developed by Microsoft as an alternative, but quite different script to Java. It was not designed to be as secure as Java. It seems that its ability to get into and control aspects of the Windows operating system and software is both its strength and weakness.
• ActiveX scripts in HTML files can deliver valuable tools for the surfing experience. In the hands of naughty folk it can cause havoc.
• A benefit of the openness of Windows and associated software is the ability of the providers to automatically upgrade that software while one is on-line. It is ironic that this enables my anti-virus software provider to keep one's definition files current whilst surfing. It also can allow the 'bad guys' in if one is not cautious!
• The vulnerability of automatically generated HTML, possibly including ActiveX scripts generated by a worm, suggests it is wise only to attach HTML files of known safety to e-mail messages.

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Created: 1998     Last Updated on 20th October 2003   :  Geography—Environment—Society