OE Classic News

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OE Classic 4.5.1

Oct 18th, 2023

New features

[2023-10-17] Automatic selection of the topmost container Inbox (instead of Local Folders Inbox) on startup

In one of the previous releases, we added a feature to customize order of email account containers (move them up or down the folder list). However, during startup of OE Classic the initially selected folder was Inbox under the Local Folders even if you didn't use Local Folders. This has now been modified so that the Inbox of the topmost container is selected instead which may be an IMAP account for example.
[2023-10-17] Edge Chromium Print opens in full screen

Previous version was showing Print preview directly in Preview Pane or Message Viewer. This has now been improved so it opens full screen.
[2023-10-11] New Emoji - Two Hearts 💕 and OK Hand Sign 👌

New Emoji images added into Emoji panel.
[2023-10-11] Attached images are previewed in fluid width (responsive sizing)

If an image attachment is larger then it is automatically resized to fit the available window width. It still remains in its original size (as received).

Bug fixes

[2023-10-11] Edge Chromium option didn't show attached images in some emails

OE Classic 4.5.0 (Edge Chromium browser engine support)

Oct 4th, 2023

Today's release marks one of the biggest and most significant updates to OE Classic since its initial 1.0 release!

New features

[2023-10-04] Options/Advanced: Edge Chromium browser engine support

For many years, OE Classic has relied on the MSHTML (Trident) browser engine, the same one used by Internet Explorer, to display HTML email content, much like Outlook Express did in the past. This engine was adequate for displaying simpler HTML content found in emails. Over time, we improved its support, enabling OE Classic to utilize more recent Edge modes of Internet Explorer, like Internet Explorer 11 mode which could show even more complex email HTML layouts. However, this engine had its limitations, including occasional freezing while loading certain emails, slow and synchronous operation, and increasing incompatibility with modern email newsletters that sometimes resulted in broken layout of the received email. Eventually, Microsoft discontinued support for Internet Explorer. This left a gap as there was no capable system-supported browser engine available. Afterward, Microsoft introduced the Edge browser, initially based on their EdgeHTML engine, but later replaced it with the new Edge browser using the Chromium (Blink) browser engine. This new browser engine became system-supported, available to all third-party app developers.

Starting today, OE Classic can use this Chromium (Blink) engine in addition to the existing MSHTML engine it already uses. This new HTML engine can be selected in OE Classic's Advanced options, and it is now the default browser engine option for new installations. For existing installations, the option can be changed in the Advanced options.

Edge Chromium is based on the Chromium (Blink) engine, which powers many web browsers today, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Chromium. It is a modern engine capable of rendering all modern HTML web content, including HTML5, CSS3, and optimized JavaScript code, while leaving behind insecure legacy technologies like ActiveX. It also renders content asynchronously in a separate thread making the application using it more responsive.

Since the new engine requires the installation of Microsoft Edge Chromium web browser, we've designed it so that if Edge Chromium is installed and available, it will be utilized when the "Edge Chromium" option is selected in OE Classic's options. However, if the option is selected but the browser engine is not installed on the system, OE Classic will automatically detect this and gracefully fallback to the older MSHTML engine, which has been a part of Windows for a long time. Please note that to activate the new engine, OE Classic must be closed and started again, after selecting the "Edge Chromium" browser engine option in the Advanced options window.

Edge Chromium option in Options/Advanced.

To utilize this new browser engine, you need to have the Microsoft Edge Chromium web browser installed. It comes preinstalled by default in new installations of Windows 11 and Windows 10. For older operating systems like Windows 8 or Windows 7, you can still install an older version of Edge Chromium (version 109.0.1518.140), which is sufficient for OE Classic and can be used on Windows 7 and newer. However, on more modern versions of Windows, OE Classic will use a more recent version of the browser engine due to the presence of the updated Microsoft Edge Chromium browser installation, resulting in fewer bugs, faster operation, and improved and more secure display of HTML content.

If you don't already have Microsoft Edge Chromium downloaded on your system but want to try out this new browser engine, you can download it from the following links:

The latest version - for Windows 11 and Windows 10:

When using Windows 11 or Windows 10, you get the best looking HTML content and thus the best experience in OE Classic.

■ Download Microsoft Edge (Chromium) - The latest version (Evergreen Bootstrapper installation)

■ Download Microsoft Edge (Chromium) - The latest version (web browser)

Older version (109.0.1518.140) - for Windows 8 and Windows 7:

■ Download Microsoft Edge (Chromium) - Evergreen Bootstrapper installation (recommended)

■ Download Microsoft Edge (Chromium) v109.0.1518.140 (32-bit) - Older version for Windows 8 and Windows 7

■ Download Microsoft Edge (Chromium) v109.0.1518.140 (64-bit) - Older version for Windows 8 and Windows 7

Once the browser is installed, OE Classic will be able to utilize it, resulting in an instant improvement in the quality of rendered HTML content in newsletters or other mailings that require it. You don't have to set it as your default web browser - however, its installation is necessary to use its browsing engine in OE Classic.

Unfortunately, older versions of Windows (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista) cannot use this new browser engine because it cannot be installed on these old and also obsolete systems. However, OE Classic can still use MSHTML due to its graceful fallback mechanism, allowing it to work on those systems, at least for now.

All essential features are already functioning, including displaying HTML content, displaying embedded or external images, zoom settings, printing, and important security features such as optional blocking of externally loaded content (images, scripts) which works much safer than with older browser engine and optional blocking of JavaScript for enhanced security. Since it is the system browser, we expect it to be well-supported by screen-reader software, ensuring good accessibility. Note that the option to block ActiveX in OE Classic is only for legacy browser engines. Chromium/Blink browser engine doesn't support ActiveX at all.

This update is one of the most crucial that OE Classic has received since its initial release, and it ensures future compatibility with upcoming Windows 12.

Implementing support for this engine was a delicate operation that required extensive code rewriting and testing and took a significant amount of time. However, it now works exceptionally well, and with future updates, it will only get better.

Here's a concise overview of what the new browser engine enables, which was not possible with the previous one:
- Avoiding various issues such as freezing, slow loading, unresponsiveness, and in some cases, even causing OE Classic to shut down.
- Displaying HTML layouts correctly, which were previously appearing broken or blank, or showing Outlook tags that weren't supposed to be visible.
- Automatically correcting the orientation of images with embedded orientation information that were saved incorrectly rotated.
- Supporting a wider range of image and other formats, including WEBP, SVG, PDF, and more.
- Automatically identifying and displaying images based on their file signature rather than relying solely on their file extension, which may sometimes be incorrect.
- Enjoying colorful Emojis instead of monochrome ones.
[2023-07-30] Customizable templates for plain text quoting

OE Classic has supported customizable templates for many years.

By default, they are stored in the folder:
c:\Program Files (x86)\OEClassic\Html\

This new feature adds support for body quoting of plain text, making it customizable. Here's a brief summary of how templates work:

- When you click "Reply", "Reply All", or "Forward", OE Classic will load a template from selected templates in the above folder (based on selection made in Options/Compose).

- The template is used for the basic layout of the reply or forward messages and can be modified if the user knows some HTML. Each template has two parts, one for plain text messages and the other for HTML messages. The appropriate one is loaded and used based on the type of message being loaded.

- In the template, there are placeholders that can be removed but are used to insert certain formatting or content of the message. These are:

{FONTSTYLE1} - Default CSS styles 1 provided by OE Classic, can be replaced with custom CSS styles.
{FONTSTYLE2} - Default CSS styles 2 provided by OE Classic, can be replaced with custom CSS styles.

{ORIGINALMESSAGENC} - The "Original Message" text (in a localized form depending on the language being used, so it could be in German, French, or any other selected language).
{ORIGINALMESSAGE} - The "Original Message:" text (also localized).

{FROMTEXT} - The "From:" text (localized).
{FROMITEM} - The sender of the message (From item).

{REPLYTOTEXT} - The "Reply-To:" text (localized).
{REPLYTOITEM} - The Reply-To of the email - if absent, this line may be left out, as in that case Reply-To is identical to From.

{TOTEXT} - The "To:" text (localized).
{TOITEM} - All recipients in the "To" field.

{CCTEXT} - The "Cc:" text (localized).
{CCITEM} - All recipients in the "Cc" field.

{SENTTEXT} - The "Sent:" text (localized).
{SENTITEM} - Email sending date, formatted based on selected Windows locale.

{SUBJECTTEXT} - The "Subject:" text (localized).
{SUBJECTITEM} - Email subject line.

{ONSENTFROMWROTE} - The "On {SENTDATE}, {FROM} wrote:" text (localized).

{BODYITEM} - The actual message body. Without this placeholder, the message body text would be absent.

The new placeholder is:

{BODYITEM-QUOT80} - Similar to "BODYITEM", it adds message body text. The difference is that "QUOT" indicates it will be quoted (chevrons, or ">" characters, will be added to beginning of each line, providing quoting or indenting). The number 80 indicates the line length (in characters) before the line is wrapped. Currently supported range is from 40 to 120 - any larger or smaller number will be ignored, and the default value will be used instead.

If you want to customize your own templates to personalize how your reply or forward messages look, they must be stored in your custom folder outside of OE Classic's installation folder, or you can choose to use one of the predefined templates provided with the program.

OE Classic 4.2

Jul 30th, 2023

New features

[2023-07-18] Work Offline mode support

Work Offline mode (main menu » File » Work Offline) is a special mode of operation which does the following when enabled/checked:

Work Offline mode in the main menu.

- Automatic retrieval of new emails or syncing with servers is disabled until the "Work Offline" is disabled (the option "Automatically check for new messages" will stop working in other words). The option is, of course, not disabled permanently, just while the "Work Offline" mode is active.

- IMAP folders can be browsed (for already cached messages) but the messages which are still in the cloud (on the server), will display the "Message unavailable while offline" message so this can be used to temporarily avoid syncing IMAP folders.

- NNTP groups can also be browsed the same way like IMAP folders with the same message if "Work Offline" is enabled.

- Any IMAP/NNTP operations which require to be synced with the server won't be available (for example marking a message as read/unread, flagging, moving to another folder, deleting...).

- Manually clicking Send/Receive button will also be disabled, until the "Work Offline" mode is disabled. That of course means that POP accounts also won't download new messages.

- Sending a message will only place it in the "Outbox" folder but won't attempt to send, while in "Work Offline" mode. This can be used if you want to place the message there, but avoid sending it until it is ready. However, receiving messages also won't work in this mode, so please have that in mind. If a message needs to be edited for an extended period of time, it should be placed in "Drafts" folder instead (File » Save in the Message Editor or CTRL + S).

- Any local operations (in the "Local Folders") remain available even while in the "Work Offline" mode, because they don't require syncing (operations like copying/moving messages within the "Local Folders", or flagging them, or importing/exporting etc.).

If you just want to browse IMAP/NNTP folders but you don't have an Internet connection and want to avoid to the error popups that the connection has failed as basically clicking any IMAP folder starts syncing the folder, then enabling the "Work Offline" mode can do that for you.

Of course for full syncing, the "Work Offline" must be disabled and the Internet connection must be available.

Work Offline mode is basically for any situation where you want the program to stop trying to connect online to send/receive data, but it limits the use of certain operations, which require the Internet connection.

Bug fixes

[2023-07-18] POP LIST command was issued unnecessarily before retrieving a message

This is only visible in the Log. When RETR command (retrieve a message) is issued, an unnecessary LIST command was issued prior to RETR command (these commands are used in the POP protocol). This caused an additional data traffic, albeit a minimal one. This is fixed now.
[2023-07-18] Fixed incorrect character decoding in rare cases (some rare messages were not shown correctly).

OE Classic 4.1.1

Jun 6th, 2023

New features

[2023-06-06] IMAP append support (upload message) - local folders to IMAP, IMAP to a different IMAP account

It is now possible to upload messages to an IMAP server. You can do it by using drag and drop of message(s) from one of the folder under the "Local Folders" onto an IMAP folder, which will initiate upload (IMAP APPEND command), or you can right mouse click and choose "Copy to Folder" and then select one of the IMAP folders to upload messages to.

The same can be done between different IMAP accounts using both drag and drop and right mouse click.

Note that uploading (appending) message to an IMAP folder is not the same as sending. Uploading makes a copy and saves it onto your IMAP server. This can be for example used to make a cloud backup of your local messages, or to move them between various IMAP accounts easily.

We hope this will make managing your IMAP accounts easier, as it does make it easier for us as well.

OE Classic 4.1.0

May 17th, 2023

New features

[2023-05-17] Plain text indenting (quoting) when replying or forwarding (supports compressed quoting)

You can see an example of such quoting/indenting in the screenshot added to this post. This feature is primarily for users who prefer to use plain-text emails.

Compressed quoting/indenting for plain-text replies.

When an email is replied, the "more than" character-indenting will be added and the message will be wrapped to 80 characters per line.

This happens when replying or forwarding a plain-text message. If the message is replied to in HTML mode, then this does not happen because HTML uses different way of quoting earlier replies as defined in the selected template (see further below).

The plain-text supports/uses compressed quoting. Instead of adding the usual "> > > " for multiple replies, it will compress them to ">>> " (no spaces between the "more than" symbols) making the entire line shorter.
[2023-05-17] "Expand all folders" checkbox in Copy/Move folder selection (remembers state)

A few versions ago we've added "Expand All" as a button in the Copy/Move folder selection window. We've now modified this into the checkbox and the checkbox state is remembered/saved across sessions, so it always expands or collapses the folder list when you open the window, depending on what you choose.
[2023-05-17] Default username is the Account Wizard is now full email address (as with most providers)

Previously, the default username was the part before the @ character, e.g. for an email "john@example.com" - that would be "john". Now it is "john@example.com".

This is just a default, you can still modify it, if your provider uses different type of username. However, as the username being full email address is more common, this is now the new default.

Note that this doesn't affect auto-configured settings. They are aware if certain provider uses "local part" vs "full email" as the username and properly adjusts the "username".
[2023-05-17] Account Wizard automatically trims email addresses to avoid some errors, when adding leading or trailing spaces by mistake

Some users were typing in additional spaces when entering email address and OE Classic Account Wizard would report an error in such a case. Now it automatically trims such spaces to possibly avoid some errors.
[2023-05-17] More customizable message templates (by default stored in "c:\Program Files (x86)\OEClassic\Html\")

This is a feature for advanced users so if you feel you're such a user, continue reading. Message templates stored in the above folder allow you to customize how your "Reply" or "Forward" email will look like. A few are offered and "Edit-Default.htm" is used as a default one.

The change is that some of the styles in the template {FONTSTYLE1} and {FONTSTYLE2} where hard-coded in the program itself so it has inserted its styles as set by the user in the program. However, that doesn't allow modification of the template as the CSS-style is inserted by OE Classic.

So in this version those styles were extracted from {FONTSTYLE} into {FONTSTYLE1} and {FONTSTYLE2} and hard-coding was removed and moved into template itself, which can optionally (by advanced users) be replaced by custom CSS styles. Some knowledge of HTML is required for customizing templates. Note that if you customize templates you should not store them in the above folder as they would be overwritten by new updates. In such a case they should be stored in a custom folder, outside of the OE Classic installation folder.

Bug fixes

[2023-05-17] Keyboard shortcut is now shown for "Insert Signature" in the toolbar popup menu and main menu (both in the Message Editor)

In the previous versions the keyboard shortcut was not shown in case of multiple signatures. Now it is.

OE Classic 4.0.8

May 7th, 2023

New features

[2023-05-07] Reordering of Local Folders/IMAP/News containers in custom order (right click or drag and drop)

It is now possible to reorder "Local Folders", "IMAP containers" and "Newsgroups containers" in a custom, user-defined order. Reordering can be made by drag and dropping the containers into a desired position, or by right clicking containers and selecting "Move Up" or "Move Down" options in the popup menu.

OE Classic 4.0.7

Apr 18th, 2023

New features

[2023-04-18] Improved JPG magic number detection

Some emails sent from misbehaving email clients incorrectly specify JPG images as PNG. In such cases, the images are not displayed in email body because of the way how HTML engine expects them to be presented. For this reason we've further improved the detection of JPG files and if such PNG images are mislabeled (or for that matter, other image formats as well which OE Classic can detect), OE Classic will re-label them as JPG instead of PNG. If such email is then forwarded from OE Classic, the images will be properly labeled so it won't be causing issues further in maybe some other, potentially less capable email clients which cannot do this. It is important that the email being sent is syntactically correct and if it isn't a good email client should tolerate some amount of mistakes but also correct them which is what OE Classic does with this but also with some other incorrectly formatted emails.

Bug fixes

[2023-04-18] Fixed issue with some emails being incorrectly detected as plain-text

We've merely corrected the behavior of the plain-text decoder here to make it more compatible with some more examples of emails which have misbehaved. We've tested it on our test set of emails which contain various formatting and they seem to be properly decoded now.

OE Classic 4.0.6

Mar 21st, 2023

New features

[2023-03-21] Expand All button in Copy/Move folder selection

Clicking the "Expand All" button will make all folders visible which are shown as collapsed (hidden) under the [+] sign.

Expand all folders checkbox.
[2023-03-21] Right click Copy/Move from IMAP to another IMAP folder (previously drag and drop only)

In previous releases, it was possible to copy and move messages from IMAP folder to another IMAP folder by using drag and drop of messages directly over the folder. That method is still available. Some users however prefer to use right click Copy/Move option so this is now available as well. That also means that the IMAP folders and containers now also appear in the Copy/Move folder selection window. Please see screenshot for an example.
[2023-03-21] Copy IMAP and Newsgroups (NNTP) messages to Local Folders (drag and drop and right click)

It is now possible to make a copy of any downloaded IMAP or Newsgroups message to Local Folders for example to backup or store locally on your hard disk drive. Drag and drop and right click methods are supported. Note that all the messages must be downloaded to be able to copy them. If some are not downloaded the program will notify you.

OE Classic 4.0.5

Mar 17th, 2023

New features

[2023-03-17] Message decoder significantly improved to support and properly decode even more message formats

Message decoder significantly improved to support and properly decode even more message formats.

Not all email programs craft messages the same way. Message can be presented in several different formats, and it depends both on the email program which has initially created the message and the receiving program which has to re-compose this message back into the original/viewable form, preferably identical to the one which was sent by the program which has created the message. We spent a lot of time to find and properly craft such messages which misbehaved and added significant update to the message decoder which now figures out better how to create the correct message display. The result available is in OE Classic 4.0.5 and shown in the screenshot with this post - take a look. As you can see, the presentation of received messages in 4.0.5 has improved significantly. We tested this also in some other programs (which we won't advertise here, but it is sufficient to say that they are from well established high profile companies), and many of them misbehaved, mangled the display or just placed the viewable items into attachments which is not the preferable way of showing them. OE Classic has now outperformed those applications and also improves its own display from the previous versions (4.0.4 and earlier). A lot of time has been put into this to ensure that the emails look as the sender has designed them. Some of the applications we tested are very expensive. Not only you get more affordable program with OE Classic, but also you get better quality display. What's not to love about this?
[2023-03-17] New emoji added (Wastebasket/Trashcan)
[2023-03-04] Store folder no longer requires mapped network drive letter, UNC path can be used directly

For advanced users - Previously, to change the location of the storage folder and use it from a network location (or NAS) you had to map a network drive letter for example N:\ - this is no longer needed now, as network paths can now be used directly in the UNC specification (e.g. \\server\share\Email\OEClassicData). You can alter store folder location via registry key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OEClassic key name UserDataLocation (path must be without trailing backslash). Make sure you modify this while the program is not running. Next time you run the program, it will use new folder location. If it doesn't find any files inside, new folders and files will be created. You can use local paths for files (e.g. C:\Email\OEClassicData) and UNC paths (e.g. \\server\share\Email\OEClassicData). Note that if you use shared storage folder or network-attached storage (NAS), only one copy of OE Classic must running and using it at any given moment.

OE Classic 4.0.3

Mar 1st, 2023

New features

[2023-03-01] OE Classic can now be set as default and open .NWS files as well

To set it as default for .NWS files, you have to navigate to the "Default Apps" in Windows control panel and then use "Choose default apps by file type" for the .NWS files where you can choose OE Classic as an option.

Bug fixes

[2023-03-01] Next Unread logic improved to move even if messages are not marked as read

Previously, if the option to "Mark message as read" wasn't set (so that the messages would remain unread), the "Next Unread" would be stuck at the currently selected unread message. Now, this is improved so it will move through all the unread messages and wrap around when it reaches the bottom of the message list. If the messages are being marked as read, the behavior will essentially be the same except eventually it will show "There are no more unread messages" when you go through all of them. If the messages are not being marked as read, then obviously, it will never report that since there will always be some unread messages in the list.
[2023-03-01] Message Viewer Previous/Next did not move through search results list but the main window list instead

Previously, if you did a Find/Search and in the search results you opened one of the messages and clicked Previous/Next buttons, you would be cycling through the main window message list, instead of the search results. The Message Viewer window is now context sensitive (takes into account where it was opened from) so it will navigate through the search results instead if opened from the Find/Search window. If Find/Search window is closed but some of the Message Viewer windows remain open, it will then switch back to the main window and move through those messages instead.

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