winmail.dat what it is and what to do with it

1. winmail.dat what it is and what to do with it • This guide tells you all about winmail.dat files and the WMDecode decoder • Instructions for installing WMDecode are included • Then, a guide to why and how to use WMDecode • And a special technique for extracting ‘lost’ attachments from Outlook Express is detailed • Steve Beadle, February 2004

2. Installing WMDecode • Installing WMDecode is easy. • You need WMDecode.zip (see here) • Open the WMDecode.zip file (use WinZip or another unzip program) • Drag the file WMDecode.exe onto your desktop • That’s it!

3. Step 1 – Mail contains ‘winmail.dat’ • You receive an email from a Microsoft Outlook user and it contains an attachment named winmail.dat

4. Step 2 – Drag ‘winmail.dat’ onto the desktop • WMDecode works on files which are available to Windows • You need to get winmail.dat out of your email program and onto the Desktop • Most email programs let you drag and drop the file onto the desktop (click and hold, move and let go) • You may need to shrink and drag the window to one side to see the desktop

5. Step 3 – Drag ‘winmail.dat’ onto the WMDecode decoder • Click and hold the mouse button on the winmail.dat file • Drag it over the WMDecode program (it will change colour when you are on top) • Let go • This will run the WMDecode software

6. Step 4 – Look at the results of WMDecode • The text box shows which attachments have been found by WMDecode • It found ‘Mappe3.xls’ • Press a key to close this window

7. Step 5 – Done! Use the attachment(s) • The attachments will be saved onto the desktop (same place as the winmail.dat file) • Move them to another location if you need to • Note: not all winmail.dat files contain attached files

8. More InformationWhy winmail.dat? • When you receive a message from a user who has 'mistakenly' sent you a message in Microsoft Outlook RTF format, you will receive the normal message text along with an attached file named 'winmail.dat'. Strictly speaking it's not a Word rich text file and you can't use Word to read it - it is a format MicroSoft calls 'TNEF'. • The winmail.dat file contains a formatted version of the message (which this program ignores) and any attached files. WMDecode will scan the selected winmail.dat file for attachments and save them individually, defaulting to the original (long) filename.

9. More InformationSpecial commands for WMDecode • WMDecode is capable of being used from the command line. You can build a .bat batch file to control how it does its job • If you wish to use WMDecode in a script, you can add 'Q' as the second argument - this will stop WMDecode from asking for keypresses to continue: WMDecode winmail.dat Q • If you wish to specify target folder for the extracted files (the default is the folder where the winmail.dat file is located), use the syntax: WMDecode filename [n|q] foldername • (where [n|q] is a single character as above).

10. More InformationBut I have an Apple Macintosh! • WMDecode is only for all Windows operating systems • If you have an Apple computer, try • www.joshjacob.com/macdev/tnef/

11. I have Outlook Express and my winmail.dat files are missing! • The problem with 'lost' winmail.dat files is down to Outlook Express. • Just to be perverse! Microsoft have made Express hide any winmail.dat attachments. • You can extract the attachments with a little more mouse-clicking. They are still there but hidden. • The following instructions tell you how to do it:

12. Outlook Express invisible winmail.datStep 1 – Find the missing data • In Outlook Express, open the mail • Click the menu 'File','Properties‘

13. Outlook Express invisible winmail.datStep 2 – Find the missing data • In the dialog, click 'Details‘ • In the next dialog click 'Message Source‘

14. Outlook Express invisible winmail.datStep 3 – Save the data to a file • Right-click 'Select All‘ • Right-click ‘Copy’ • Start Notepad • Choose Paste from the Edit menu • Choose ‘Save As’ menu • Enter filename (e.g. on the desktop) WINMAIL.MIM

15. Outlook Express invisible winmail.datStep 4 – Extract winmail.dat using WinZip • Then open up WinZip – (other programs can decode MIME as well) - choose menu ‘File’ | ‘Open‘ • Select the WINMAIL.MIM file and extract the file 'winmail.dat' (if it exists) into a folder

16. Outlook Express invisible winmail.datStep 5 – Use WMDecode to get attachments • Drop that file onto WMDecode.exe • This will find the attachments (if any) • Done!

17. More Notes: • Files dragged onto WMDecode from another folder will cause the output to be directed to that folder, not the desktop • Some files are not Winmail.dat file, they are MIME files - you can tell by opening them with Notepad and seeing the lines which look like: ----=_NextPart_ ........ • You can decode MIME files by first renaming the file to anything.mim (change the filename extension to .mim - you may need to display full file extensions using the Options menu in Windows Explorer first). • Then open with Winzip (other programs can open mime files too).

18. No attachments found by WMDecode? • Some winmail.dat files do not contain any attachments (e.g. Word documents etc). • These are often quite small files (about 3K to 5K) which usually indicates that there are no attachments. • Normally the winmail.dat file contains a formatted version of the original email message, plus any file attachments. • You can use Notepad to check this.

19. WMDecode How to download and license it • Get a free copy from the internet. This expires after a month or two. Go to http://www.biblet.freeserve.co.uk/ • Pay $10 (or equivalent) and get a perpetual license. Go to http://www.reg.net/product.asp?ID=7394 If you have any queries (e.g. site licenses, source code agreement) then please contact me at the email address contained in the ReadMe.txt file in WMDecode.zip