Dealing With MS Outlook Winmail.dat On Linux Mail Server

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Dear All,

Does someone do anything on your Linux (or UNIX) mail servers to convert darn proprietary MS Outlook winmail.dat attachments your users may receive
(occasionally if lucky) into readable e-mail format.

I know quick answer to my question (good quick answer would probably be:
just trash them). Still, being involuntarily immersed into corporate world
(even at Educational institution), I’d like to know what clever and wise people do. I can refer my users to some free online converters and get over with that. The only thing that makes me think about potentially investing more effort into dealing with this garbage is: google mail just seamlessly shows users such e-mails with all contents. And I’m really reluctant to quietly outsource services we were providing on our servers to google.

Thanks in advance for all your advises and input.

Valeri

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Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
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3 thoughts on - Dealing With MS Outlook Winmail.dat On Linux Mail Server

  • the vast majority of ‘winmail.dat’ files are just formatting hints for the message body. you can read the message without them.

    anyone using a halfway newer version of Microsoft’s Outlook stuff shouldn’t be generating them at all if their mailer is properly configured.

  • convert receive the message body. you can read the message without them.

    That’s true, I’ve seen many of them like you describe, but the user who asked me about it gets mail with images attached and buried inside winmail.dat attachment.

    I’m going to see what I can do following the direction Frank Cox pointed
    (tnef).

    shouldn’t be generating them at all if their mailer is properly

    Properly configured, huh. Don’t ask me what I think about percentage of properly configured MS Windows mail servers in comparison with Linux, Unix or Macintosh ones (yes, even Macintosh ones). I really don’t want somebody offended ;-)

    Valeri

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    Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++