Looking for an Outlook MSG viewer

[NewKreation]

It would be great if the Outlook *.msg viewer was portable. But, I would like to view these files with something besides Microsoft Outlook whether it is portable or not.

I tried changing the extension to *.htm and opening it in a web browser which seems to work. However, there is a bunch of garbled text which I can not read.

Any ideas?

[Cornflower]

What I use is not a msg viewer, per se, but an Outlook message exporter, exporting to text.

PMSEU (Personal Message Store Export Utility) exports Outlook messages very quickly.

Install: Extract all files to a directory and run PMSEU.exe
Requires: VB6 runtime dll

Is portatable, according to Depends.exe and regshot.
Note: because it touches Outlook Message stores, 4 Outlook cache keys get updated, but no settings are saved, and due to the nature of this kind of program, I think that this would be acceptable.

Homepage: http://www.genusa.com/utils/pmseu.htm
Download: http://www.genusa.com/utils/pmseu2.zip

[NewKreation]

What I use is not a msg viewer, per se, but an Outlook message exporter, exporting to text.

Thanks for your reply. I really need something to view the msg files on a computer that does not have Outlook installed and the original Outlook database is no longer available. I do appreciate your input though and it will probably help someone else around here.

[pipetman]

Not sure , if this would do the trick for you, but there's is plugin for Thunderbird (Mozilla email client) - and by extension Portable Thunderbird - that can import pst files: http://www.foxiewire.com/Thunderbird/Th ... lugin_1-2/

[NewKreation]

Not sure , if this would do the trick for you...

I have actually copied the email itself to a directory to file away for later. This file has an *.msg file extension. The *.pst file is the whole Outlook database.

I would like to just view the *.msg files stored away in the file folder. Thanks for the input though.

I may have to start printing these emails to pdf from now on.

[nickoftime]

NewKreation,

Basically, the MSG file format is a series of binary streams. Naturally, .msg files are a non-readable format, unless you have Outlook installed (Thanks, Micro$oft). I have been searching for a way to do the same thing, but have come up empty.

If you search the web, you will find some ways to manually code it using VB .NET. You may find some programs that do it, but they are not cheap, free, or portable.

I just save my .msg files in plain text. With this approach, I can use my desktop search software to find the desired content quickly and easily.

Wish I had a better solution for you - sorry.

Nick

[fenixproductions]

2NewKreation
Try Universal Viewer Free.

1. download this app,
2. download this plugin:
http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/wlx_msg.html
3. configure viewer for your needs.

[mshkolnik]

The Viewer for MS Outlook Messages (http://www.scalabium.com/msg) allow to read/convert the msg-files and can be run without any install.

[Cornflower]

The Viewer for MS Outlook Messages (http://www.scalabium.com/msg) allow to read/convert the msg-files and can be run without any install.

Except that it is a limited-feature trial, so is payware, not freeware.


I tried the Universal Viewer with plug-in with a 50% success rate. While I like the ones that succeeded, I am happy with PMSEU exporting to text, and archive that way, using grep to locate message strings, etc. After all, it worked very well for many of us back in the day of DOS or FIDO-based mail. <grin>.

[mshkolnik]

The Viewer for MS Outlook Messages (http://www.scalabium.com/msg) allow to read/convert the msg-files and can be run without any install.

Except that it is a limited-feature trial, so is payware, not freeware.

Most msg-messages will be opened without limitations. Only about dialog shown in trial

[Bellingham]

Don't bother with the http://www.scalabium.com/msg if you're wanting to test it out on an entire msg file or just need it for a temporary solution to view an Outlook *.msg file. Unlike stated above back in 2008, now in 2010, the current version won't display much more than the first line without making you pay for it. Not just the About dialog as before.

Too bad you can't even test it out on one full Outlook msg without paying. Not much of a test sadly.

[RonaldP]

[Moderator note: This is not freeware.]

PST Viewer Pro and Message Export, from http://www.encryptomatic.com/pstviewer/ specifically standout in their usefulness for people who want to convert Outlook email messages to PDF. Why convert emails to PDF? As an open standard, PDF is increasingly seen as a neutral format that will stand the test of time for email archiving purposes. This article will describe both of our email-to-PDF tools so that you can understand which may be the best fit for you.