Article ID: 246353
Article Last Modified on 1/25/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 Service Pack 2
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 Service Pack 2
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 Service Pack 1
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5
- Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01
This article was previously published under Q246353
For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
257824 OL2000: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express
SUMMARY
This article contains a copy of the Readme.txt file included with Outlook Express 5.01
MORE INFORMATION
-----------------------------------------------------------
Readme for Microsoft Outlook(TM) Express Version 5.01 & 5.5
February 2000
-----------------------------------------------------------
(c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 2000
Thank you for using Outlook Express!
This document provides complementary or late-breaking information
to supplement online Help in Outlook Express. Outlook Express 5.01
and 5.5 ships with Internet Explorer and Internet Tools.
-------------------------
How to View This Document
-------------------------
To view the Readme file on the screen in Windows Notepad, maximize
the Notepad window. To print the Readme file, open it in Notepad
or another word processor, and then click Print on the File menu.
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CONTENTS
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1. MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
2. NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE
3. KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE
4. TROUBLESHOOTING
5. TIPS AND TRICKS
6. SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
=================================
Part 1: MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
=================================
Outlook Express is an Internet standards based e-mail client
and news reader.
To read e-mail with Outlook Express, you must be using a mail
system that uses SMTP and POP3, IMAP, or HTTP protocols. If you
don't know whether your e-mail system supports Outlook Express,
contact your administrator or your Internet service provider and
ask if they support POP3, IMAP, or HTTP mail clients.
You can use Outlook Express to read newsgroups, or discussion
groups, such as the Usenet, by using NNTP-based news servers.
Contact your Internet service provider (ISP) or network
administrator for the name of the news server that you should
use. Outlook Express can also be used to receive support for
a variety of Microsoft products on the news server
msnews.microsoft.com.
Outlook Express also includes Windows Address Book, which
provides rich contact management capabilities, including the
ability to create groups of contacts and folders to help you
organize your e-mail and personal addresses. The Windows
Address Book also provides access to Internet directories
that use LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). Internet
directories are an easy way to find e-mail or street addresses.
A number of popular Internet directories are pre-configured
for easy access.
====================================
Part 2: NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE
====================================
New features in Outlook Express 5.01:
- Read receipts.
You can now request a receipt verifying that a message has been
displayed on the recipient's computer. However, the recipient
must support returning receipts in order for you to receive one.
- Improved international support.
Among many international improvements, Outlook Express 5.01 can
handle reading and saving files containing a large variety of
international characters in their file names.
- Secure mail (S/MIME) enhancements.
Outlook Express 5.01 includes support for the S/MIME version 3
specification and other secure mail enhancements. The new
features include support for CMS formatted messages, the
ability to request and return secure receipts, the ability
to send and process security labels, and the ability to send
separate signing and encryption certificates.
- Integration with the MSN Messenger Service.
Online contacts are displayed with a special icon in the
contacts area of Outlook Express 5.01. You must have the
MSN Messenger Service installed to use this feature.
- New stationery.
A dozen contemporary stationery designs are included in this
version of Outlook Express.
New features in Outlook Express 5.0:
- Identities for multiple users.
With the Identity Manager, you can create profiles for
different Outlook Express users. These profiles are shared by
applications such as Outlook Express and Windows Address Book.
- Support for Hotmail accounts.
Outlook Express can now read and manage your Hotmail Inbox and
folders, as well as synchronize your Hotmail contacts with the
contacts in your Windows Address Book.
- Offline support and message synchronization.
You can download News and IMAP folders for viewing offline.
Actions performed offline (such as sending messages and moving
messages within an IMAP account) will be performed when you go
back online.
- Contacts pane.
The contacts in your Windows Address Book are now visible in
the main Outlook Express window.
- Enhanced message rules.
Outlook Express includes enhanced rules support for more
criteria and actions, including the ability to block message
senders with a single click or specify rules for newsgroups.
- Multiple signatures.
You can create an unlimited number of signatures, and each
signature can be associated with one or more mail or news
accounts.
- Easier to use secure mail (S/MIME).
Outlook Express automatically finds and associates digital
certificates installed on your computer with your mail accounts
and automatically adds digital certificates that others send you
to the Windows Address Book.
- Phone dialer integration.
It's easy to place a telephone call to a contact in the Windows
Address Book using the phone dialer installed on your computer.
- IMAP drafts and sent items.
Outlook Express can store in-progress messages in a server-
based Drafts folder and store copies of sent messages in a
Sent Items folder on the IMAP server.
- IMAP folder manager.
You can customize which IMAP folders are visible or hidden
(subscribed or unsubscribed) in the folder list.
- Advanced Internet directory search.
You can now perform searches against Internet directory (LDAP)
servers with additional criteria and logical operators.
- Watch conversation and ignore conversation.
You can designate a news or mail conversation as "watched" so
that you can see when new messages arrive on that topic. You
can also designate a conversation as "ignored" so that you
will not see future messages on that topic.
- HTML source editing.
You can easily edit the source of an HTML message to include
advanced HTML tags.
- Customizable message filters.
You can customize which messages are hidden or shown based on
more than a dozen criteria.
- Stationery wizard.
It's now even easier to customize HTML stationery, including
setting up margins, fonts, background images, and colors.
- Improved connection management.
Outlook Express can share connection settings with Internet
Explorer 5 and above, and it detects when you have disconnected
your phone or have disconnected from a LAN. When a connection is
needed, Outlook Express will now connect automatically or
prompt you.
====================================
Part 3: KNOWN ISSUES IN THIS RELEASE
====================================
- The frequency that HTTP mail accounts are checked for new
messages is determined by the HTTP mail server, not by the
options set inside Outlook Express. If you want to check for
mail on your HTTP mail account more frequently, you can press
the Send/Receive button on the toolbar.
- If you were using the PGP plug-in to Outlook Express 4, you
must uninstall it before installing this version of Outlook
Express. If you installed Outlook Express before uninstalling
the PGP plug-in, this version of Outlook Express will not
start.
To fix this problem, uninstall this version of Outlook Express,
uninstall the PGP plug-in by using Add/Remove Programs in
Windows Control Panel, and then install Outlook Express 5.01
or 5.5.
- Windows Address Book version 5.01 and 5.5 files cannot be
opened in previous versions of the Windows Address Book.
- With certain versions of the McAfee VirusScan program
running, Outlook Express may not shut down properly. To fix
this problem, upgrade to McAfee VirusScan 4.0.3 or later.
- Your e-mail display name can only contain characters from the
default system locale, which is set in Regional Settings in
Windows Control Panel. E-mail display names, folder names, and
contacts not in the system default locale may not be displayed
correctly.
- If messages from a previous version of Outlook Express were
not upgraded automatically, you can important the messages
manually. To do so, carry out the following steps:
1. Click File, and then click Import.
2. Click Messages, and then follow the instructions on your
screen.
- When you uninstall this version of Outlook Express, the messages
you have received will remain in the Outlook Express message
files. If you were previously running Outlook Express 4 or
Internet Mail and News, only the messages you received in those
programs will be there after uninstall.
To get your messages from this version of Outlook Express into
Outlook Express 4, carry out the following steps:
1. In Outlook Express 4, click File, and then click Import.
2. Click Messages, and then follow the instructions on your
screen.
- S/MIME version 3 features are available in Outlook Express
only if your operating system (such as Windows 2000) contains
updated security files.
- To activate support for security labels, a security policy
module must be installed on your computer. Please contact
your system administrator to find out if they support
security policy modules.
- Junk mail filtering is not available in this version of Outlook
Express.
- In order to print a mail message in this version of Outlook
Express, the message must be displayed either in the preview
pane or in a separate window.
- The Identity Manager provides an easy way to group user
settings and change users across applications, but it does
not provide security for messages, application settings,
and digital certificates. If you need stronger security,
you should use Windows logon profiles to manage user settings.
- If you install Outlook 98 after installing Outlook Express
5.01, the shortcut to the Microsoft Outlook Newsreader may
not work. To fix this problem, carry out the following steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Programs.
2. Right-click Microsoft Outlook Newsreader, and then click
Properties.
3. In the Target box, type the following (exactly as below):
"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /outnews
- Under certain circumstances, Outlook 98 in Corporate Workgroup
mode may stop functioning after this version of Outlook Express
is installed. To fix this problem, reinstall Outlook 98.
- When you import contacts into Microsoft Phone, the contacts
show up in Phone but not in the Windows Address Book. To work
around this problem, carry out the following steps:
1. In Outlook Express, click the File menu, and then click
Import.
2. Run through the import process again.
The contacts will then show up in the Address Book.
- In order for Outlook Express to work on a dual-boot computer,
you must install the same version of Outlook Express on both
operating systems.
- You cannot use Outlook Express to access your e-mail
account with any of the following services: MS Mail, cc:Mail,
CompuServe, America Online (AOL), or Microsoft Exchange Server
earlier than version 5.
- You will not be able to see embedded objects or images sent
from people using Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange, or
Windows Messaging. File attachments work fine, however.
- If you used Internet News for reading newsgroups, any messages
in your Posted Items folder will be moved into the Sent Items
folder when you upgrade to Outlook Express.
- Outlook Express shows subscribed IMAP folders only in the
folder list. It no longer shows all your folders (subscribed
and unsubscribed).
- The View filter "Show Replies to my Messages" only shows
message conversations for which you were the author of the
original post. Replies to your replies will not be visible.
- Message Rules are not available for IMAP accounts.
- If the option is set to encrypt all outgoing messages, any
rules with the action "Forward" in them will not be executed.
- If you receive messages that does not have proper character set
encoding information, you can read them by selecting the proper
encoding from the View Encoding menu.
- HTTP mail accounts do not support folder names that contain
a forward slash ("/"). If a folder name on an HTTP account
contains this character, use a Web browser such as Internet
Explorer to access your account and rename the folder. You
can gain access to Hotmail accounts at http://www.hotmail.com/.
- You cannot configure Hotmail features such as Message Rules or
the Inbox Protector using this version of Outlook Express. To
configure these features, use a Web browser such as Internet
Explorer. You can gain access to Hotmail accounts at
http://www.hotmail.com/
=======================
Part 4: TROUBLESHOOTING
=======================
- If you are unable to send or receive mail, check your computer
to make sure of the following:
- The TCP/IP protocol is installed on your computer.
- All cables are properly connected to your computer, modem,
or LAN.
- You have a PPP or SLIP account with your Internet service
provider.
- Your Internet service provider or LAN server supports POP3
or IMAP and SMTP.
- Your modem communication parameters (baud rate and type of
protocol) are set correctly.
- If you are unable to read or post news, make sure that you
use an account name and password for a news server only if
it requires them. If you use an account name and password
and they are not required, you will not be able to connect
to the news server.
- If you run into a problem, try the Troubleshooting section in
online Help:
1. On the Help menu, click Contents and Index.
2. On the Contents tab, click "Troubleshooting."
3. Click "If you have trouble using Outlook Express."
- Frequently Asked Questions and popular help topics on Outlook
Express are available on the Microsoft Web site at:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/ie/outlookexpress/win32/
- To access the Microsoft peer product support newsgroups, carry
out the following steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Accounts.
2. On the News tab, click Add, and then click News.
3. Follow the instructions on your screen.
4. When you are prompted for a server name, type
msnews.microsoft.com
If that name isn't found by your Internet service provider,
you can type 131.107.3.27 instead.
You do not need to log on to this news server.
=======================
Part 5: TIPS AND TRICKS
=======================
- To send a message to someone whose address is stored in the
Windows Address Book, double-click the name of the contact
in the Contacts area.
- To edit the source of an HTML message you are writing, on the
View menu, click Source Edit. Three tabs will appear at the
bottom of the Window. Click the Source tab to see and change
the HTML.
- To change the New Mail Notification sound, carry out the
following steps:
1. In Windows Control Panel, open Sounds and Multimedia
properties. If you do not see the Sounds and Multimedia
icon, click View All Control Panel Options.
2. In the Sound Events list, click New Mail Notification.
3. In the Name list, choose a sound.
- To look up a person's e-mail address when sending mail, use the
Check Names command, available on the Tools menu or on the New
Message toolbar. When the associated address is found, the name
is underlined.
- To send a mail message in Plain Text only (no HTML formatting):
- On the Format menu, click Plain Text.
To make Plain Text the default setting for new messages,
replies, and forwarded messages:
1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Send
tab.
2. Under Mail Sending Format, click Plain Text.
By default news messages are sent in Plain Text, but you can
also change this setting under News Sending Format.
- To customize the toolbar, right-click it and use the menu
commands to select the settings you want.
- You can resize the preview pane or the message list by dragging
the divider between them.
- You can change how the preview pane splits, or turn it off
entirely, by carrying out the following steps:
1. Click the View menu, and then click Layout.
2. Change the options you want.
- To view the e-mail address of someone who has sent you a
message, double-click the message to open it, and then
double-click the author's name in the From field. You can
also add this person to your Address Book by right-clicking
the name, and then clicking Add To Address Book.
- To view responses to a particular message in a newsgroup,
click the plus sign (+) next to the message. The responses
appear indented below it.
- In mail, you can leave a copy of your messages on the server.
To set this option, carry out the following steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Accounts.
2. Select the mail account you want to modify, and then click
Properties.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then select the Leave A Copy Of
Messages On Server check box.
- You can search for newsgroups that contain specific words in
their names. To do this, carry out the following steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Newsgroups.
2. In the Display Newsgroups Which Contain box, type the words
separated by a space.
You can also search newsgroup descriptions. If you cannot see
the descriptions, carry out the following steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Accounts.
2. Click the news account you want to modify, click Properties,
and then click the Advanced tab.
3. Select the Use Newsgroup Descriptions check box.
4. Click the Tools menu again, and then click Newsgroups.
5. In the Newsgroups window, click Reset List.
- To reorder columns, you can drag and drop column headings.
You can resize columns by dragging the right edge of the column
header.
- To hang up, carry out the following steps:
1. Click the File menu, and then click Work Offline.
2. When asked if you want to hang up, click Yes.
- To make Outlook Express connect and check mail at regular
intervals, carry out the following steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the
General tab.
2. Make sure the Send And Receive Messages Every X Minutes
check box is selected.
3. Change the setting "If my computer is not connected at
this time" to "Always Connect" or "Connect if Work Offline
is not checked."
- If any of your mail or news accounts requires you to use a
specific ISP connection, select the option to "Always connect
to this account using," and then click the appropriate account.
This option is available on the Connection tab in the Properties
of each account. This option is used primarily by people who use
multiple connections, such as LAN and a dial-up connection or
two dial-up connections.
- To check for new messages at startup, carry out the following
steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General
tab.
2. Select the Send And Receive Messages Every X Minutes check
box.
3. Make sure that each account you want to check has the option
to "Include this account in Send and Receive All" enabled.
This option is available on the Connection tab in the
Properties of each account.
Note that the option "At Start up, ask me if I would like to
connect" only initiates a connection. It does not check for
mail.
- The Dial-up Connection option "At Start up, ask me if I would
like to connect" will always prompt you to dial a modem at
startup even if a LAN connection exists. If you primarily use
LAN, turn off this option.
- To disable the "Connect automatically" behavior for any of your
dial-up accounts, click Cancel while connecting to the account.
The Dial-up Connection window appears. Clear the Connect
Automatically check box.
- If you are running Outlook Express on Windows NT and you
need to add support for a different language, carry out the
following steps:
1. In Windows Control Panel, open Keyboard properties. If you
do not see the Keyboard icon, click View All Control Panel
Options.
2. Click Add, and then follow the instructions on your screen.
This installs the appropriate NLS (National Language Support)
files. You do not have to use the associated keyboard layout.
=============================================
Part 6: SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS
=============================================
For the latest information about Outlook Express, see our Web
page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/oe/. You may find that
your questions can be answered there.
A newsgroup is dedicated to the discussion of Microsoft Outlook
Express and provides peer support:
-news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress
To read it, follow the procedure outlined in the Troubleshooting
section above.
This site is the best place to go if you are experiencing a
problem, as someone else who experienced the same problem
might already have posted the solution.
For advanced support issues, go to http://support.microsoft.com/support.
Keywords: kbinfo kbreadme KB246353
