winmail.dat

[Crazy Larry]

With Outlook 2003, whenever I forward an e-mail w/ attachment to someone who
isn't using Outlook as their e-mail client, the attachment changes to a
winmail.dat file and can not be viewed/opened by the person who received the
e-mail.

I've searched high and low on Google and Google Groups and, although this
seems to be an extremely popular problem with lots of info available about
it, everything I've read says that this problem is caused by sending the
e-mail in Rich Text Format. I've set my mail client to send in plain text as
well as HTML and forwarded e-mail attachments still always change to
winmail.dat if the person receiving it isn't using Outlook; changing from
RTF to plain text or HTML hasn't fixed the problem.

If anyone has come across this problem already (i.e. changing to plain text
or HTML doesn't fix the problem) and can help me out, that would be
fantastic.

 

[Pat Cai [MSFT]]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for posting here.

First, please have a look at the KB article below.

Winmail.dat attachments are included in received e-mail messages in Outlook
2002 or in Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=278061

Maybe you have already reviewed but I still would like to include it so
that we will not miss any point.

If the problem persists, I need to collect some information:

1. Are you using an Exchange mailbox?

2. Do everyone use that mail server encounter the problem? Whether this
problem only occurs to a particular email account or all the accounts in
your Outlook? Maybe it is a server issue so I need to clarify this point.

3. Locate and rename the Outlook cache files
====================================================
1) Perform a search on the computer to find the following files:
extend.dat, outcmd.dat, frmcache.dat, views.dat

Some of them may not exist, but it should not matter. We may also need to
show the extension of the file and enable the "show hidden files" option in
"Folder Options".

2) Delete or rename the files

3) Detect and repair office.

-- Open one of the Office 2003 programs, and select "Detect and Repair" on
the Help menu;
-- In the "Detect and Repair" dialog box, click Start;
-- Insert the Office 2003 installation CD if prompted. Restart your
computer after the repair process is complete.

4. Create a new profile of Outlook. Please refer to

How to create a new e-mail profile in Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=829918

5. Try using Outlook Express to send mail. Would the recipient get the
attachment properly?

Thank you for the time collecting the information above. If you have any
further concerns, please feel free to let me know.

Regards,

Pat Cai
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
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