Having received the next letter by e-mail, any user may face the situation when some information in this letter is missing and in the same time there is winmail.dat is in the list of files. This file can be downloaded to your computer without problems, but you will not be able to open it with standard tools. At the same time, a winmail.dat may contain a very important information, because, in fact, this file can be called a data archive of some kind. In this article we will find out why winmail.dat may appear in the list of files and what is the best way to open it.
Winmail.dat in the letter: what is this file
If the sender sends his message using Microsoft Outlook, Express or Exchange (or other less common third-party programs), some of the information in it can be sent in an attachment named winmail.dat. Also on the Internet you may meet another name for this file – it can be called TNEF, which is the abbreviation for Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format.
Apr 10, 2011 Here are instructions on how to open the winmail.dat file: Save your winmail.dat file on your Desktop. If you use Mac OS X 10.6 or later then download the most current update of TNEF’s Enough version 3. If you use Mac OS X 10.5 then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.2. If you use OS X 10.4 or earlier then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.0.
- Does winmail.dat show up for some but not all recipients of your messages? Fortunately, you can get rid of winmail.dat altogether by making sure Outlook does not send mail using RTF. Instructions in this article apply to Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003; and Outlook for Microsoft 365.
- Sep 11, 2018 What is the winmail.dat attachment? Most of the popular mail managers handle email formats in similar ways. But when you send an email from Outlook or Exchange to a recipient that uses a different email client, they will receive a plain text message with an attachment named winmail.dat.
This winmail.dat file mainly appears because when the sender was using his application to send the message, he applied formatting that is not supported by the program (for example, the browser) that will be used by recipient to view this message. At the same time, the letter from the sender left in the RTF format. As a result, the recipient will find only some text and attached supported materials from the sent message, but the formatting elements (font, color), vcf contact cards, icl calendar events and some other elements will be placed in a file named winmail.dat.
How to open the winmail.dat file
Having received the winmail.dat file in the letter, any user can open it, if necessary, even without having an Outlook e-mail client (or anything like it, supporting operations with this file) on his computer. It is possible to use online services or special small utilities to view information in the winmail.dat file.
Using online services
There are many online services that will allow you to easily extract information from the winmail.dat file. One of the proven and convenient services is Winmaildat.com. It’s interface is not overloaded with unnecessary features, you can work with it for free, and it copes with it’s main task – opening the winmail.dat file – without any problems. This service operates as follows:
- First you need to download the winmail.dat file from the letter that you received;
- Next go to the Winmaildat.com website and click “Choose a file”. In the window that opens, specify the path to the winmail.dat file downloaded on your computer;
- When the file is downloaded, click “Start” and wait. Waiting time depends on the file size and connection speed;
- After a while the page will be updated, and you can download all necessary files to your computer. It is worth noting that the online service in question does not work with files that weigh more than 10 MB.
Using utilities
There are several programs to view winmail.dat files, created for various operating systems, including mobile ones:
![Winmail dat attachment file opener Winmail dat attachment file opener](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126206097/303961167.jpg)
- Windows. If you have a permanent need to open winmail.dat files, it is advisable to install a special application that performs this function on your computer, instead of using the online service. The program called Winmail Reader handles the task of viewing the winmail.dat files without any troubles. You can download it for free from the official website. It is worth noting that, unlike the online service mentioned above, this program can work with files larger than 10 MB;
- MacOS. Mac App Store has a Winmail.dat Viewer application. It is called Letter Opener 4 and it also serves to open winmail.dat files. This program is extremely simple and free. It has a very convenient content preview function;
- iOS and Android. You can also easily find programs for mobile operating systems that will allow you to open winline.dat files. Winmail.dat Opener is an extremely simple and convenient application for Android, and at iOS-devices you can use Winmail DAT File Viewer.
It is not recommended to download winmail.dat files, that cause suspicion and are executable, that is, they have the format .exe, .cmd and others. https://ithigh-power849.weebly.com/epson-scan-4870-software-mac.html.
Did you receive an email attachment named winmail.dat or winmail? Here’s a brief explanation of what this file is and instructions for opening it.
Winmail Dat Attachment File Opener
Free video stabilization software. Winmail.dat files are sent by people using Microsoft Outlook as their email application. Under certain circumstances Outlook will encode attached files, like Word or PDF files, in this winmail.dat format. https://ithigh-power849.weebly.com/best-free-flyer-software-for-mac.html.
Update May 2012: If you need to open winmail.dat files on your iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) try Winmail File Viewer which currently costs 99 cents in the iTunes Store.
Update February 2017: In November 2015, an iOS version of TNEF Enough was released by the developer of TNEF Enough. Best web design program for mac.
Mac users can open the winmail.dat file using a free application (donations accepted) and extract the files hiding inside. Unfortunately, this application has a goofy name which is TNEF’s Enough.
Here are instructions on how to open the winmail.dat file:
- Save your winmail.dat file on your Desktop.
- If you use Mac OS X 10.6 or later then download the most current update of TNEF’s Enough version 3. If you use Mac OS X 10.5 then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.2. If you use OS X 10.4 or earlier then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.0.
- By clicking on one of these links, you’ll download a .zip file which contains TNEF’s Enough inside. Your Mac should automatically open the .zip file so you should see TNEF’s Enough sitting in your Downloads folder.
- Move TNEF Enough into your Applications folder.
- Double-click it to open, then go to the File menu and select Open…
- Select the winmail.dat file which you previously put on the Desktop.
- You’ll then see a window listing the embedded files which are the files that you actually want.
- Click on each file, one at a time, and click the Save button.
- Save these files to your Desktop or any other desired location.
- Quit TNEF’s Enough.
You’re done. You can now throw away the winmail.dat file since you’ve extracted all of the files from inside it.
Winmail.dat Mail Apple
If you’d like to read more about how and why this happens please read this Microsoft Support article or this other article. These articles also provide instructions that you can pass on to the Outlook user who sent you the winmail.dat file so he or she can make changes to no longer send you winmail.dat files. Essentially, they have to edit their record for you in their Contact list to indicate that you should only receive plain-text emails.