Using MS Outlook Express

Here you will find a description of the popular mail client MS Outlook Express.

Filters

Not everyone knows that OE has efficient mail filters (message rules) that allow to automatically sort incoming mail, put new messages to folders, ping-pong them to a specified address or autorespond. By the way, using filters one can efficiently fight spam, deleting it right from the server. But when it comes to reinstalling Windows — good-bye filters… (and sometimes mail too). And while many people learned how to save mail (back up the contents of the folder Windows\Application Data\Identities\{set}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\), it takes working with the registry if you want to back up rules. But do not be shy to. So, start the registry editor for Windows called REGEDIT (Start→Run→regedit→Enter). Look for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{a set of digits and letters}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\ (the set of digits and letters can look like {7173EFE5-2BF8-4886-BD21-75FB4B7D3562} for example). Select this branch to make it blue and press Registry→Export registry file, select the folder to save the rules in (this set should be used as the name of the file — press F2, Ctrl+C) and hit Enter. A reg-file will appear in the selected folder. Now reinstal Windows, no worries. When you are done, copy your mail to Windows\Application Data\Identities\{set}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\, copy the new ’set' to the clipboard and open the above KBD>reg-file with a text editor. Then replace all the occurences of the old set with the new one, save and close the file. Then double-click it and press OK. That’s it, your filter (and other Outlook Express settings) are there!

Password

Should you forget your identity password in OE 4/5, you will have to tamper with the registry a little in order to get access to your mail again. Run and go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Protected Storage System Provider\*Default*\Data\89c39569-6841-11d2-9f59-0000f8085266 or HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Protected Storage System Provider\\Data\89c39569-6841-11d2-9f59-0000f8085266. If users’ profiles are on in your computer you have to look into HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Protected Storage System Provider\\Data\89c39569-6841-11d2-9f59-0000f8085266. Then remove subkeys. All you have to do now is run OE and type your new password. Please note that the name of the subkey and CLSID is the same. If you know your CLSID go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{CLSID} to learn the name of the key with your password.

Splash Screen

It is recommended to get rid of the splash screen that pops up every time when you start Outlook Express. Run the registry editor, as shown above, go to the familiar address ofHKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Identities\{set of digits}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0 and create a DWORD parameter there (Edit→New→DWORD value) with the name NoSplash and value of 1.

Setting Up For Your Free E-mail Box

First turn on the computer, of course and start Outlook.

Let us assume that your name is Ivan Petrov and you have got an account with MailRu.Com, and your address is simply …

1. In the program menu choose Tools. Then select Accounts…

2. In the right upper corner of the new window titled Internet Accounts press the Add button then Mail.

3. The Internet Connection Wizard will pop up:

First you are asked to type in your name.

You can just do so. The point is that when someone gets mail from you, they will see what you have entered here at the FROM line. So if you do not want everyone to know your name, enter your nickname, or you can insert your address instead of your name (but in our case your name is included in your address… so when you get a new account, strain your fantasy and call yourself ). This what people usually do. Anyway, you can change it later.

Select the address and press Ctrl+C.

4. When you are done, press the Next button. Enter your address at the next Wizard window by pressing Ctrl+V.

Here you can specify an address different from the one that you are going to use. It can be convenient if you use the mail server of the ISP that you use, which works faster than the free one. Or your free mail box does not have SMTP.
But not all of servers allow that. If you use Mail.Ru, the address that you enter in this field mustто вводимый в данном поле адрес должен быть обязательно @mail.en.

5. Hit the Next button again. Enter the addresses of the SMTP и РОР3 servers in the next window. For MailRu.Com it is imap.mailru.com and smtp.mailru.com respectively. For some other servers you can see the addresses at the description page.

6. After you stress the cool Next button again, you will have to type in the name for your account at the free mail server and the password. Usually you do not enter the full address but only the part before the @ sign. Actually you enter them much in the same way as you do in the login web page: username (ivanpetrov here) and password. Adding an account: Step 6

7. Again Next, a new window again… What, do I have to type anything else?? Calm down and relax. This window serves only to congratulate you: you did it! Accept the congratulations by pressing the Finish button.

It seems that’s it. You can send and receive mail. Before you do, think of some more points.

8. Get back to Step 1. At the Internet Accounts window the name of your account should appear at the Mail tab. Outlook Express uses the name of your РОР for the name by default. It is not always handy. It is better to use your e-mail address. To change the situation, press the Properties button on your right.

9. Just copy and paste your address from the fourth field to the first one in order to get something like:

Now you can see your e-mail address instead of the name of the POP server at the Internet Accounts window and also after stressing Ctrl+M. It is especially handy when you have a few accounts at the same server.

10. Go to the Servers tab at the same Properties window:

Usually you do not have to alter anything here. But if you have registered at a server that supports many domains or requires authentication, you will need to change some things here. Think about it if your account does not work and the server responds with an error message.

a. Check the Logon Using Secure Password Authentication option. This may reduce the risk of intercepting your password by malicious people a little.

b. Many domains. You may need to enter your full e-mail address at the Account Name field, including the part after @.

c. IP addresses of servers. Start the command line (DOS), type in ping -a imap.mailru.com (when online, naturally). You will get the digital address of the server (here it is 80.68.244.11, but it is an example and the address will be different; also, the IP address may change with time). Paste the digits (select it with the mouse and press Enter to copy it to the Clipboard) into the corresponding field instead of the server name. This will make working with the server quicker, because when you set the server name, your computer must contact a DNS server first to obtain the IP address (and if your DNS server does not have the required IP in its database, it contacts other DNS servers in its turn), and this takes time. If the IP is known, your computer contacts the mail server directly without going to DNS which saves time.

Adding an account: Step 11

d. Authentication required by server. Check the My server requires authentication option. Usually you do not need to do anything else, though sometimes (with many domains servers in particular) you have to press Settings on the right of this option and enter the name of your mail box or the full address (as in MailRu.Com case) and passowrd.

Adding an account: Step 12

12. The last remark. Check the Leave a copy of messages on server option at the Advanced tab. It has to do only with incoming mail (to make the same happen to outgoing mail you will have to specify your won address at the bcc field of every new letter. Why is it good? You will have two sets of your message archives, one in the server and the other in your computer. The first is important because it is accessible from anywhere, be it your work or an Internet club in an African capital. That is you can travel or log in from home and work, and always get access to your correspondence. The other archive set (at your computer) is handy because all the e-mails are at hand and you do not have to connect to the Internet if you just want to browse them. This means that you do not have to waste time and money. Finally, if one of the sets will be gone (for example if you get a I LOVE YOU virus), you will still have the other. Just make sure the size of your e-mails at the server does not exceed your quota.

That’s it. Now connect to the Net and press Ctrl+M in Outlook. Mail will be checked and new messages downloaded. If you encounter any problems, check whether you have entered all the data correctly (server names, passwords, etc), whether all the required options are checked (pay attention to Step 10), experiment. Actually, there must be an instruction on setting up mail clients at your mail server. The only problem is that they may not always be trusted, and you have to experiment to find out the right configuration!

Good luck!

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