MSG file preview handler

Hi forum and support team,

for PC’s without Outlook installed, does eM Client offer/install a preview handler for previewing Outlook MSG files in the preview pane of Windows Explorer?

Thanks for information!

David.P

Yes, I followed the reg hack mentioned in your first link, and it works just fine.

Sorry for the late reply - for some reason the forum hadn’t notified me.

Unfortunately, the instructions in that link seem to go somewhat over my head…

Do I understand correctly, you have followed these instructions, and now you get a file preview for Outlook MSG files in Windows Explorer - without Outlook being installed!?

No, I followed the instructions and chose to preview eml files, a universal message format and one that eM Client also uses. It works as expected.

If you have any issues with previewing Microsoft’s msg format, maybe ask on a Microsoft forum. For eM Client you can just open the file by double-click, or drag and drop it to one of your folders within the application.

Sorry again for the late answer. Somehow I still don’t get e-mail notifications about new posts.

Too bad that the email preview of eM Client doesn’t work for MSG files, as you say.

The MSG preview of Microsoft (i.e. Outlook) in Windows Explorer unfortunately is legendary unreliable, and practically not fixable if broken (I have tried it for literally decades without any reproducible success)

Well that is a function of Microsoft Explorer, and has nothing to do with eM Client at all.

Fortunately eM Client can open msg files, so even if Windows doesn’t provide a preview, and you don’t have MS Outlook installed, you can still open the file.

> Well that is a function of Microsoft Explorer, and has nothing to do with eM Client at all

Technically, file previews are third party plugins (“preview handlers”) for Windows Explorer, in this case by Microsoft (via Outlook). For example, for PDF files, there’s lots of third party preview handlers for Windows Explorer.

Bummer that eM Client doesn’t seem to install a preview handler for MSG files.

If you are having issues with msg files in Windows Explorer, this is not the correct forum for that. You need to ask your questions on a Microsoft forum.

This forum is for assistance with eM Client.

Sorry, this is incorrect.

My original question was:

> For PC’s without Outlook installed, does eM Client offer/install a preview handler […] for MSG files?

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case (at least according to your information).

Still happy though if it should turn out otherwise.

Thanks

No, eM Client does not install “preview handlers” for other applications.

For that you will need to ask on a forum for that application.

Bummer, too bad.

> … install “preview handlers” for other applications

Just for clarity and completeness, *.MSG is not an “application” but a file type, just as *.PDF is not an application but a file type.

For even more completeness and for anyone coming by with the same problem:
MSG Files Will Not Display in Windows Explorer Preview Pane – 3 Workarounds

1 Like

Yes, msg is a proprietary Microsoft message format. i.e. NOT eM Client.

Please ask your questions on a Microsoft forum for issues involving that OS and their applications. 

Trust me, I’ve done that for more than a decade –  as already mentioned, and which is the reason why I came here in the first place.

If eM Client would not only open *.MSG files beautifully (as it does), but also install a *.MSG preview handler of its own, this would literally ROCK the email world, which to this day is littered, poisoned, addicted to and plagued with, Outl00k