Winmail.dat - How do I open this file??

[Daniel-Man]

Someone just sent me an email message apparently in the form of winmail.dat . How do I open this file and read the contents?? Do I need to download a special program??

[LadyGrey]

I am probably on the wrong track here but isn't a .dat file a data file?? If it is I would be very careful about opening it. Files with extensions like .exe or .dat in email could be potential virus or worms. Give it a good scan before you do anything. I'm sure one of the guru's will be along shortly to help and hopefully correct me if I'm wrong. LG;)

[malcore]

If you are not using Outlook as your e-mail client, you won't be able to do much with it. There are programs to open it and extract some info from it, but not much you can really do.

The person who sent it to you is more than likely using Outlook. Outlook will automatically put the winmail.dat extension to emails and AT00001.DAT extension to attachments when composed using Rich Text Format or HTML. Only Outlook can read it.

I suggest you just write to the person who sent you the e-mail and ask them to resend it using either regular web mail or turning off rich text.

TNEF, Rich Text and Outlook (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q241/5/38.ASP&NoWebContent=1)

[Daniel-Man]

ok. Yeah I am using windows XP so yeah I use outlook, how to I view the file then, cause it didnt work when I tried file - outlook - data file

[malcore]

Do you have Outlook set up as your default e mail client.

I don't understand what you mean when you say you tried file-outlook-data. You must have Outlook set up and be using it to view the e mail. Outlook, not Outlook Express.

If the mail is from a friend, ask them to change their outlook setting so that all mail sent to you is in plain text format. It's a little safer this way anyway.

[Daniel-Man]

ok, what I meant was there was a short email, with an attachment .dat file, in this .dat file was another email, thats what I was trying to open. Yes outlook is my default client. It's ok now cause I found this nice utility on the net: http://www.biblet.freeserve.co.uk/Download/WMDecode.zip which allows me to extract the .doc file from the .dat file and I can now view it. Thanks.

[Paul Komski]

FYI

Most .dat files, being text or ASCI based, can be read with Notepad. Just right click and "Open With" and choose Notepad.

[Daniel-Man]

the one I had wasnt able to be read with notepad, unless you can read computer language

[malcore]

Yes, the winmail.dat is a propretary microsoft encryption mehtod called TNEF. It provides information to show text in Rich Text Format, bold, italics, colour.

What happens is a person who receives mail encrypted this way and is not using Outlook or Exchange will have the mail in plain text format along with this winmail.dat attachment. Usually this attachment is useless and cannot be read. If opened in Notepad it will appear in some funky hexadecimal/mime/binary garbage.:p

The problem is when there is actually an attachment within the winmail.dat, in word format or whatever. To extract this attachment, you need to use a program like the one you downloaded.

Sometimes, even users of Outlook can't read these attachments depending on whether the sender/receiver is on corp/workgroup or internet mail only.