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Outlook Express Outlook Express is a free E-mail program from Microsoft

May 3, 2005. The gripes below are a bit dated. Still, John Dvorak wrote Kill Outlook Express Today on May 2, 2005 in PC magazine. My colleagues on the Personal Computer Show agree that you should not use Outlook Express.

New Message Notification

March 22, 2000. Someone asked me about how email programs notify you when you have new messages. This led to the below comparison of how Outlook Express version 5 (OE5) and Netscape Messenger version 4.61 handle this. Messenger is the name of the email program included in the Netscape Communicator suite of software. OE5 came up short. AOL users can ignore this item, as they have no choice of email programs. 

As background, someone with a dial-up analog modem connection to the Internet can have their computer either be online (logged on to the Internet thru an ISP) or offline. In a corporate setting or at home with DSL or a cable modem, the computer is typically logged on to the Internet all the time.

Neither of these email programs is smart enough to detect whether the computer is online or not but instead each needs to be told. This is surprising in that AOL Instant Messenger can detect when you log on to the Internet (assuming you are not an AOL customer) and automatically start itself up.

Nonetheless, how you tell them that you are online or offline differs in each program (but its not hard). Many people with dial-up analog connections prefer to read and write the email while offline, thus not tying up the phone line. You only have to be online to get your new messages and send messages that were written offline. Just like with a letter, you can read and write one at home, but you have to deal with the Post Office to mail a letter or get your new mail.

OnLine / OffLine indicators in Outlook Express and Messenger

Click on an image to see a larger picture. Each opens a new browser window

When Netscape Messenger starts up it automatically tells you (in a few seconds) whether you have new email messages or not. Outlook Express 5 does not. OE5 can automatically download new messages as soon as it starts. If however, you tell it not to do this, then it does not provide an indication as to whether there are any new messages.  

Both programs will check for new messages every few minutes and you can control the number of minutes.

If new messages have arrived while you are logged on Netscape Messenger just tells you this (with a little flag in the system tray). OE5 can automatically download new messages. Messenger is much more polite, waiting for you to tell it to download the new messages, which I prefer. I'm not sure how OE5 handles new messages received while online if you tell it not to automatically download them. 

With either program if you tell it you are offline then it wont check for new messages.

However, if you are offline and the email program thinks you are online (which happens alot to me) OE5 will tell you that an error has occurred. This is because it could not contact your ISP to check for new mail. Messenger deals with this better - it says nothing. The OE5 error message is ugly and confusing and no normal person will be able to make any sense out of it. Don't take my word for it, here is a sample: 

I much prefer Messengers mute behavior.

Both programs can play a sound when you have new email. You can change the sound by using the sounds applet in the Windows control panel. There is an event called "New Mail Notification".

When you are writing a new mail message in OE5, the SEND button is always the same whether OE5 thinks you are online or not. Netscape Messenger is smarter, the icon changes depending on whether it thinks you are online or offline. Its a nice handy visual feedback of the mode that the program is operating in.

When writing new messages while offline, Messenger automatically sends them to the "unsent messages" folder. In contrast, OE5 sometimes pops up a window to warn you (or notify you) that it can't send the message immediately, but instead will save it in the "outbox". I see no reason for the warning message and prefer the way Messenger handles this. 

Speaking of outgoing messages that have not yet been sent, I prefer the term Messenger uses ("unsent messages") to describe the folder where they wait. OE5 uses the term "outbox". Its not a big deal and you can easily get used to either. 

With Messenger the sending of messages is separate and distinct from receiving. OE5, in contrast, has a Send/Recv button that does both at the same  time. The problem with this button is that it send first, receives later. If  there is a problem sending a message, it doesn't receive any new ones. Worse still, if there was a sending problem, it says you have no new messages, when in  fact, you may have new messages.

OE5 always starts up in online mode which might be annoying for a dial-up modem user. In contrast, Netscape Messenger starts up in the mode you left it in the last time the program was run. I prefer this, its good for someone with a dial-up Internet account who normally reads/writes email offline.

The programs are about the same when it comes to telling the user whether it is operating in online mode or offline mode. They do so on the status bar at the bottom of the program's window. In each of the pictures above, I have noted the Offline/Online indicator in red. Messenger has only an icon, while OE5 has both an icon and it also says "working online" or "working offline" in English. However, if you put the mouse over the Messenger icon, it tells you the meaning of the icon (that is, whether you are online or offline) and it also tells  you that clicking on the icon will change it from online to offline (or visa versa). OE5 does not tell you how to change its operation from online mode to offline mode. Just so you know, you double click on the "working online" message in the status bar to switch it to offline mode (and visa versa). Messenger only needs a single click.

The messages produced by Netscape Messenger while its retrieving new messages and while sending outgoing messages are much better than the messages produced by OE5. They are simpler and clearer and provide more information.

Finally, a problem. Someone complained to me about the computer hanging up the phone (dial-up modem connection) after getting their email. Outlook Express was the reason, there is an option to make it do this.  

I like to open new browser windows for links in email messages. With Netscape Messenger this works fine. With OE5, it only works on the first link. Subsequent links re-use the same browser window. Setting the option to "Reuse windows for launching shortcuts" has no effect. It turns out Microsoft has a knowledge base article on this. You have to change the file associations for Hypertext Transfer Protocol under the folder settings in Windows Explorer. I have not tried this. 

This is not to say that Netscape Messenger is perfect. My gripes with Messenger are on the Netscape Communicator page. 

Other Opinions 

Someone I know has these gripes about Outlook Express version 5: 

• Having the Send/Receive functions on the same menu item is particularly stupid. It bit me while I was trying to make someone's email work in Japan. There was no way of knowing whether the problem was on the send side or the receive side.
• If you're already connected to the Internet via a dialup modem connection and want to use another email account, the first thing it does is drop the connection and redial!  I kid you not. 

A reader of the Langa List newsletter (September 2000) said his hard disk kept running out of space for no apparent reason. After a folder-by-folder inspection he found a file called "pop3.log" that was over 300 megabytes. His system was always up and running and checking for new email every minute. In a way, it was his fault as this file is intended for troubleshooting and is not normally written to. It doesn't even exist on my computer. On the other hand, it's lazy programming by Microsoft not to put a cap on the size of their log files. You can read about Outlook Express log files in its Help. 

Another reader of the Langa List newsletter (January 22, 2001 issue) complained that starting with Outlook Express release 5 you can no longer delete a local copy of a newsgroup message by just pressing the "delete" key or right-clicking on the message's line in the list of messages and choosing "delete." A work-around is given. 

Scot Finnie writes the Windows Insider column for Windows magazine. In the January 11, 2001 edition, he wrote an article called I hate Outlook Express. In addition to his own opinions and experiences, Mr. Finnie says "I don't think Microsoft gives a hoot about ... Outlook Express." 

FYI: The Langa List newsletter of January 18, 2001 described a problem with OE5 printing plain text emails in varying font sizes. It also links to a Microsoft KB article about the care and feeding of OE5. The newsletter of January 25, 2001 discusses advantages of Eudora over Outlook Express. It also mentions that Outlook Express suffers from a problem of not deleting messages, even after they have been deleted from the Trash folder. On February 12, 2001 Fred Langa again wrote about Outlook Express saying it is "...limited in ways that range from the annoying ... to the serious...". 

FYI:  Feb 25, 2001. A bug in how OE5 handles vCards (virtual business cards) could allow an attacker to take control of your PC. Even if you don't use vCards, someone can send you an email message with one attached. A malicious vCard can cause OE5 to fail or, even worse, cause a damaging program to run on your PC. Read Microsoft's problem description.

FYI: March 30, 2001. A BIG BUG exists in IE5 that can cause Outlook Express to delete all the files on your computer just by viewing an email message. 

FYI:  Read this item from windows.about.com about Outlook Express and viruses.

FYI: A list of problems in Outlook Express v5 including Error Messages, Known Bugs and Workarounds and Performance Problems. 

Ban Outlook--now. By Steven Vaughan-Nichols on ZDNet. September 25, 2001. Outlook, with it deep hooks into the operating system, will always have security problems. So I'd like to propose a radical way to prevent Outlook transmitted diseases (OTDs): ban Outlook from corporate desktops. Outlook is vulnerable by design. If you want all that power to trade data and code with programs like Excel and Word, security is the price you pay. Even when good users and administrators patch their software, this only closes the barn door after the horses have fled. Want a replacement? I like Pegasus Mail--and it's free. Eudora also still has its fans and can run on Windows PCs, Macs, and even Palms. The article concludes with advice on how to configure Outlook to be as safe as possible. 

I have read that Outlook Express doesn't handle transferring email from computer to computer very well. In contrast with Netscape Messenger and Eudora, all that is needed is copying the files from and to the correct path. There is a free utility called DBXtract that can be used to help Outlook Express users transfer email. (December 2001) 

How Microsoft designed an entryway for viruses in Outlook Express By Al Fasoldt May 8, 2002. The author says Outlook Express "could well be the most unsafe program on the planet." 

OLEXP: Your Outlook Express Password Is Not Retained in Windows 2000 or XP (Q264672). When you run Outlook Express using Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP and connect to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to retrieve e-mail messages from a Post Office Protocol (POP) server, your password is not retained even though you have chosen to save it. Applies to OE6 for Windows XP and OE 5.01 and 5.5  for Windows 2000. (added June 28, 2002)

Microsoft Warns of Critical Flaw in Outlook Express. October 11, 2002. By Dennis Fisher. eWeek Magazine. There is a "critical" bug in Outlook Express 5.5 and 6.0. Simply previewing an email message designed to exploit this bug can cause OE to either crash or allow the attacker to run whatever code he chose on the user's machine. Microsoft issued a bug fix, but read the next item. Computers running Outlook are not affected by this bug.  

Microsoft Outlook Express Patch Flawed. October 11, 2002. By Dennis Fisher. eWeek Magazine. A patch for an OE bug incorrectly tells users they need a different version of Internet Explorer in order to install the fix. In fact, the patch requires IE 6, but users who have installed Service Pack 1 for the browser are already protected against the bug. When users with IE6 SP1 install the patch, they receive an error message that is misleading. It tells them they need to install IE 6, and does not bother to mention that they're already protected.

Here is a reason not to use Outlook Express. From Brians Buzz newsletter, December 4, 2003. In brief, someone installed KB 824145 from security bulletin MS03-048 on Windows XP Professional and lost all of their e-mails in Outlook Express.