How to open Outlook Express Emails in a web browser

[Bartholomew]

I am using a Outlook Express for my email work. It quiet easy to send and receive the mails in outlook express. I was just wondering whether is there a way by which i can view my mails in a web browser like internet explorer or mozilla. Sometimes the links in my web browser do not work. So, i just got a notion that is there a way to view these mails directly in the browser. Pls reply

[Techguru01]

The default mail folder of your email software is something like this - C:\Documents and Settings\TechArena\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{A675D54B-A5F6-4DF0-8C1E-E3EBD0304557}\Microsoft\Outlook Express. If you navigate to the folder you see that all your emails are stored in .dbx format. Like inbox.dbx, outbox.dbx, etc. The more emails are stored the maximum is the size of file. You can either import or export mails between email clients like between Outlook Express and Thunderbird. But the .dbx format is only read by the email softwares. There are separate tools through which you can read the mails inside a .dbx file like Dbx2mail 2.1 . You can extract file of format .dbx and view the emails.

[johnson22]

To make your hyperlinks in the mails work you will need to configure a default browser for your email clients. These basically occurs when a different program has registered itself as a default application for browsing a web. The cure for it the following steps :

• Launch Internet Explorer.
• Go to Tools > Internet Options
• Select Programs Tab.
• Select the check box Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser.
• Click OK.
• Open Outlook Express and click on any links in a mail.

Now the link will open in Internet Explorer.

[deveritt]

After span of time a got a way to view outlook express emails in a web browser. First confirm that you have visual basic editor installed.
Run your Outlook Express > Tools > Macros > Visual Basic Editor
In the window of Visual Basic select Insert > Module. Name the newly created module in the rightpane as InBrowser by right clicking on it and selecting the properties tab.
Copy and paste the code below to the module.

Sub OpenInBrowser()

    Dim BrowserLocation As String
    Dim AlwaysConvert As Boolean
    Dim EvaluateHTML As Boolean
    
    '=============Set your variables in the section below==========================
    'The default settings are optimized for viewing newsletters and receiving
    'messages with HTML forms or animated gif-files embedded in the message.
    
    'Set the location of the executable of the browser you want to use.
    'Standard value: "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
    BrowserLocation = "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
    
    'When set to True, we will let Outlook convert the message to HTML.
    'The message will be opened in the configured browser just as it
    'appears in Outlook.
    'Standard value: False
    AlwaysConvert = False
    
    'When set to True, we will look for embedded resources in the HTML message and
    'determine whether Outlook should convert the message or whether we can strip
    'the HTML directly. When set to False, we will always strip the HTML and ignore
    'embedded resources.
    'For this setting to take effect, AlwaysConvert must be set to False.
    'Standard value: True
    EvaluateHTML = True
    
    '=======Don't modify the code below unless you know what you are doing=========

    'Get the user's TempFolder to store the item in
    Dim FSO As Object, TmpFolder As Object
    Set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
    Set FileName = FSO.GetSpecialFolder(2)

    'Get all selected items
    Dim MyOlNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace
    Set MyOlNamespace = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    Set MyOlSelection = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection

    'Make sure at least one item is selected
    If MyOlSelection.Count = 0 Then
       Response = MsgBox("Please select an item first", vbExclamation, MyApplName)
       Exit Sub
    End If
    
    'Make sure only one item is selected
    If MyOlSelection.Count > 1 Then
       Response = MsgBox("Please select only one item", vbExclamation, MyApplName)
       Exit Sub
    End If
    
    'Retrieve the selected item
    Set MyselectedItem = MyOlSelection.Item(1)
    
    'construct the filename
    strname = "www_howto-outlook_com"
    FileName = FileName & "\" & strname & ".htm"
    
    'If the message is in HTML format we directly capture the HTML from the message
    'to construct our htm-file. This will allow us to capture as many HTML elements
    'as possible. If it is a different format, or if the HTML mail includes embedded
    'resources we let Outlook convert it to HTML.
    Dim OutlookConvert As Boolean
    OutlookConvert = True
    
    If MyselectedItem.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML And AlwaysConvert = False Then
        Dim rawHTML As String
        rawHTML = MyselectedItem.HTMLBody
        
        If EvaluateHTML = False Then
            OutlookConvert = False
        Else
            'Check if there are embedded resources in the message.
            'If it does, we let Outlook convert the message.
            If InStr(UCase(rawHTML), UCase("src=""cid:")) = 0 Then
                OutlookConvert = False
            End If
        End If
    End If
    
    'Write the temp-file
    If OutlookConvert = False Then
            'create the htm-file in the temp folder and write the HTML code to it
            Set objFile = FSO.CreateTextFile(FileName, True)
            objFile.Write "" & rawHTML
            objFile.Close
            Set objFile = Nothing
    Else
            'let Outlook convert the message and save the selected item
            'as htm to the temp folder
            MyselectedItem.SaveAs FileName, olHTML
    End If
    
    'open the saved item in the browser
    Shell BrowserLocation & " " & FileName, vbNormalFocus
    
    'Cleanup
    Set FSO = Nothing
    Set FileName = Nothing
    Set MyOlNamespace = Nothing
    Set MyOlSelection = Nothing
    Set MyselectedItem = Nothing

End Sub

Now go to Debug > compile project.
Set the micro security level to medium.
Now create button for a macro
Go to Tools-> Macros… > select the OpenInBrowser macro and then press Run.
Go to Tools > View > Customize > Commands Tab > Macro
In the Commands toolbar click on Project1.OpenInBrowser and hold down the mouse button.
Drag the icon to a location on the Toolbar so the pointer will loose the cross and release the mouse button to drop it in that location
Rename the icon by right clicking on it.
Exit the outlook and restart the application.