A recurring question is
I've been sent a winmail.dat file and I can't open it; what is it? How can I open it.I'm posting a brief explanation and solution here to create a reference resource.
It happens when a user sends a rich text formatted email from some versions of MS Outlook (and maybe a few other MS programs). Outlook neatly packages up the message and all of its attachments into a winmail.dat file and sends it as a single attachment. People using Outlook as their email client should be able to read the contents just fine.
My own opinion is that the unthinking people who make assumptions about the recipient's software are idiots. Idiots rarely have anything useful to say and so the file can safely be discarded unread :-D.
They can avoid the problem by always sending plain text emails - which is the courteous thing to do anyway.
How to open winmail.dat (if you must)- Save the winmail.dat file to your desktop.
- Get WMDecode from http://www.biblet.freeserve.co.uk/ and unzip it
onto your desktop. - Doubleclick the WMDecode icon.
- WMDecode will find winmail.dat and extract its contents onto the desktop.
WMDecode time expires after a few weeks if you don't pay for it, but its website explains that you can always download another free one.
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