Microsoft Outlook Express – A Guide to Origin, History and Replacement
In the vast domain of email clients, there is a name that will always remembered for its HTML emails and scripts. Outlook Express a widely used email client in its time. Also, introduced with Internet Explorer from version 4.0 to version 6.0. It was also a part of some versions of the Windows OS like Windows 98 to Windows 2003, Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95, and Mac OS 9. MS Outlook Express replaced Microsoft Internet Mailand News.
Due to the similarities in their names, MS Outlook and Outlook Express are often considered interrelated. In fact, it is said that Outlook Express is the descendant of MS Outlook. However, that’s not true. It is a completely different application from MS Outlook. Also, has no similarity, except the common architectural philosophy.
History of Microsoft Outlook Express
The origin of Outlook Express marked by Microsoft Internet Mail and News. In addition to email, was also a news client introduced in 1996 as part of Internet Explorer version 3. In 1997, the program renamed Outlook Express with Internet Explorer version 4.0. Also, the executable file of Microsoft Internet Mail and News, that is, msimn.exe, transferred to Outlook Express as an executable file. In the present time, with the release of the beta version of Outlook Express version 5, an advanced spam filter introduced. Due to the criticism it faced due to its instability for the mass market, the function eliminated shortly before its launch.
The database of Outlook Express 4.0 was the DBX format. The emails stored in the .mbx file. However, in Outlook Express 5.0, this database format changed to .dbx files. For each default Outlook Express folder, a separate DBX file created.
Versions of Outlook Express
|
Version |
Operating System |
Year |
|
4.0
|
Windows 98 Microsoft 98 For Macintosh
|
June 1998 |
|
5.0
|
June 1999 |
|
|
5.01
|
February 2000 |
|
|
5.5
|
June 2000 |
|
|
6.0
|
October 2001 |
Issues with Outlook Express
- Difference In Email Standards
One of the problems faced by Outlook Express users was the incompatibility of OE’s email standards with other email clients. For instance, MS Outlook and MS Exchange implement a Transport Neutral Encapsulation format for their attachments. This format is not decoded nor is it compatible with Outlook Express and, therefore, its users can not understand the attachments sent from those email clients.
- Corruption Issues
The main reason behind the corruption in the Outlook Express problems in your database is due to an overshoot in its size limit. The maximum limit for the size of DBX files is 2 GB. In the event that the size of the database increases, the database becomes corrupted and, therefore, leads to an abrupt operation of Outlook Express.
- Issues In Security
Being one of the first email clients to use HTML scripts, emails in Outlook Express were usually infected with the virus. Another issue, usually encountered with the email client was that any script used to get open as an attachment.
Replacement of Outlook Express
Eventually, Outlook Express was supervened upon by Windows Mail and after a period of time by Windows Live Mail in the form of different software for Windows operating system.
In the Macintosh operating system, OE was superseded by Entourage up to 2008 edition. After that, Macintosh was replaced by MS Outlook 2011.