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Winmail.dat File and How can I Open It

Use Winmail.dat Viewer Tool to Open Winmail.dat file

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Challenges at Hand

  • I keep receiving Winmail.dat file from a client. Whenever he sends email to me then I get this file as an attachment. I don't know what is this Winmail.dat attachment and how can I open & View Winmail.dat file?
  • Recently, I have received a pesky Outlook attached Winmail.dat file from a client. This file contains very important information related to my business. Now I can't ask him to send it again as plain text because he has gone out of station for two weeks. And it is very important for me to open this file. So, please tell me that whether I should go with a third party tool like Winmail Opener/Reader or not for viewing the data?

Solution Proposed :

  • You are getting Winmail.dat file as attachment cause of different email client which you are using other than Microsoft Outlook. So, Either you can ask your client to send email again as Plain Text format or you have to use any tool to open this DAT file for viewing the data.
  • Yes, you can use a third party tool for opening Winmail.dat file. There are many free online as well as offline tools are available, but If you are very curious about the data then you could go with a Winmail Viewer pro tool.

When does Winmail.dat File Created?

This file is created when an Outlook user sends email in Rich Text Format or HTML file format to another user who is using Thunderbird or other email client for accessing emails. Then that user will receive complete message as attachments of Winmail.dat file. If receiver as well as sender both are using configured Outlook for sending / receiving emails then they will not get Winmail.dat file as an attachment. RTF messages can display various type of colors and styles in message and this type of files are also called TNEF (Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format) files.

Screenshots

How to Open Winmail.dat file using Winmail Opener

See following described the solution using a third party Winmail.dat Viewer tool which is completely free to download and use.

Step-1: Download the Winmail.dat File Viewer tool by clicking on above mentioned download button.

Step-2: After downloading, install Winmail.dat Viewer Software in your computer and run this Winmail Reader tool to Open Winmail.dat file. After running this software you will see exactly same screen as shown in below image.

Install & Run the Winmail.dat Viewer tool

Step 3: Now just click on Open Winmail.dat button and locate the file in your computer and click on Open button to open Winmail file. That's all. See below image for reference.

Open winmail.dat file to view the data

FAQs

Tech Talks

Listed Commonly Asked Questions and Their Answers

A: DAT file is binary or text file which keeps each and every type of data in binary or txt format. Type of data can be images, videos, documents, webpages etc. Dat file is created by many applications for some specific purpose. Outlook creates Winmail.dat file in that case when sender is sending message as RTF format and receiver of email is not using Outlook, then receiver will get Winmail.dat file as an attachment complete data will be stored in this file.

A: There are two different way to open Winmail.dat or ATT00001.dat file. The first one is manual method and the other is using a third party tool. We will see both way one by one. In manual method if you know that the sender has sent you a Microsoft Word Document file (.doc) then it will be easy to for you to open & read Winmail.dat file. What you need to do just go through the properties of Winmail.dat file and then click on View tab and uncheck the checkbox Hide extensions for known file types to view the extension of file and hit OK button. Now just right click on Winmail.dat file and select open with and then choose Microsoft Word or Notepad to open it. If you can easily read all data present inside then save this file as .txt or .doc or other file formats according to application. But if you are looking that the text is showing as distorted format in word and the messages are not readable then you have to go with a third party tool to view Winmail.dat file data in readable format. there is an online Winmail.dat Viewer tool which you can use to open mail.dat file for viewing the message. You can also ask the sender of message to send it again as plain text format.

A: The sender of mail is using Outlook Email Client for sending and receiving emails. He is sending message to you as RTF or HTML file formats. These type of messages can be read by Outlook only and you probably using any other email client or if you are using Outlook then you have not configured it for receiving these types of messages. Therefore you are getting Winmail.dat file as attachment.
To read Winmail.dat file email attachment in correct format either you can ask sender to send the mail again in plain text format or you can convert that file into Microsoft Word (.docx) file or Open Office (.odt) file.

A: Hi, You must be sending him message as RTF format. You have to change the default message sending format from RTF (Rich Text Format) or HTTML format to Plain Text. To change the setting just follow below steps.

  • Run Microsoft Outllook and go to Tools and select Options.
  • Now choose Mail Format and Set it to Plain Text and hit OK button.

Now whenever you will send mail, it will be sent as Plain Text format which will be easily accessible in any email client.