New features

• Pasting email addresses into To/Cc/Bcc fields now supports multiline items. For example, you can paste your email list from an Excel table and you don’t have to add a comma separator as OE Classic will automatically convert new lines into the comma separator and paste each line as a separate email address.
  
  
• OE Classic is now verified publisher for Outlook/Office365/Microsoft365 accounts and this completes that process. This version redirects to a different authentication page. Unfortunately, a mistake was made which can’t be corrected in our updates. As previous update had unverified publisher which was added under the wrong Azure AD account, we had to create a new application under different Azure AD account to get the verified publisher checkmark. Since the ID of the application is now different, this means that you will have to delete all previously added Outlook/Office365/Microsoft365 accounts (added in the older version of OE Classic – which are 3.2.77 and 3.2.78) and add them again, using this version 3.2.79. So please - delete any previously added accounts for this server type and add them again, after updating to this version. We recommend doing this as soon as possible as it appears that the accounts which are added with “unverified” publisher can cause issues and we will eventually delete the unverified publisher application so it will then report an error when you try to load messages from that account.

Bug fixes

• There was a bug in a third-party component which caused freezing when opening Message Editor window when the window was too narrow (horizontally). This version should fix that problem.

New features

• Internal support for Yahoo accounts. We are not yet verified yet, so the support can’t be added until we get through the verification process, but we’re working on it and the code is ready-to-go, once we do get verified. Hopefully, the verification process won’t take too long.
  
  
• New localized texts – in the Send/Receive window. We’re gradually updating the translations as translators complete the translations, and a good number of languages has already been updated – thank you all translators for the work and for being prompt!

Bug fixes

• Changes in incremental search – now it starts from the current position rather than from the beginning. Incremental search is a feature where you click for example in the list of folders and start typing to jump to a particular folder with the name you’ve typed. This has previously jumped to a first folder (message, contact) in the list, now it jumps to the one which follows the current position. For example, you can press “g” key and it will go through all the folders which start with “g”. Previously it would just jump to the first one and stay there without cycling through all of them. And if you type faster, you will jump to a folder starting with the typed-in letters. For example, if you type “oec” it may jump to a folder named “OEClassic” if you have such a folder. We’ve also checked, the incremental search feature in Outlook Express 6 and it behaves very much the same like it does in OE Classic right now.

New features

• Support for Outlook/Microsoft OAUTH2 accounts. That would be email addresses ending with @msn.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, @outlook.com (and the national domains like @outlook.it, @outlook.de, @outlook.fr etc.) and also GoDaddy custom domain (your own domain) email accounts which use Azure AD (Outlook / Office 365) as their backend. Perhaps some other provider as well, but we know of GoDaddy for sure that it uses this as their backend.
  
  Note, you can't convert an existing account into OAUTH2 account. You have to create a new one from scratch. The process is described below.

Bug fixes

• Font size when printing message headers (To/Cc/Bcc/Subject/Date) in the "Print" / "Print Preview" was too tiny when a system was set for a high DPI (like 150% or 200%).

To use Microsoft OAUTH2 account use the following steps:

1. Ensure you have the latest version installed first.
   
2. From the main menu choose "Tools" and then "Accounts"
   
3. Click "Add..." button
   
4. Select the "Google" account icon or "Outlook/Microsoft" account icon, depending on your email account provider (see this post's screenshot).
   
5. Select the account type - you can use IMAP or POP account (IMAP syncs emails to multiple devices, POP downloads usually to a single computer). Click the "Next" button to continue.
   
6. If there is a firewall popup at this point, be aware that OE Classic needs to be allowed to listen to authorization from Google/Microsoft so please ensure OE Classic is allowed through the firewall. For built-in Windows Firewall there should be no popup, as OE Classic should be pre-approved, this only applies to third party firewall programs or antiviruses.
   
7. Now, OE Classic will open your default web browser and you need to log in using your web browser. The authorization must be done from your web browser, as that is how it is designed. For Microsoft you only need to click "Yes" to approve OE Classic. For Google - you must check all the checkboxes offered to give OE Classic permission to access your email account, otherwise you will get an error in OE Classic and you won't be able to add the account. Therefore, check all the checkboxes to give full access to OE Classic before you click "Continue".
   
8. You should now get a message that OE Classic is approved, and you can return back to OE Classic and click "Finish" button to close the account wizard and add a new account.
   
9. OE Classic is now authorized to use your account, you can start sending and receiving emails right away.

New features

• Paste of comma separated list of email addresses into To/Cc/Bcc is automatically converted to individual items.

Bug fixes

• Additional fix for one remaining “Could not obtain OLE control window handle” error which we noticed in the meantime after the last bug fix, when closing the program.

New features

• More compact To/Cc/Bcc items in the message source, supports quoted text (ASCII only), Q-encoding or B-encoding, tries all and chooses the shortest one to create the shortest possible message size. Previously it has always used Q-encoding which caused unnecessarily long email address lines when using international (UTF-8 encoded) characters.

Bug fixes

• Extra space in the “To” column is now condensed.
  
• Fixed a decoding bug where Q-encoded or B-encoded email address with a comma or a quote in the name portion would not be interpreted as single email address item but as multiple emails or it would drop quotes from the name portion.

Notes on the new support for pasting comma separated list of email addresses:

Pasting comma separated list of email addresses.

The comma-separated list will be automatically converted into multiple items after you paste them and move to another field. This was actually implemented to fix issues related with the new feature in 3.2.75 (more compact To/Cc/Bcc) but it still counts as a new feature.

Supported formats (examples) are:

Example 1: email@example.com

Example 2: <email@example.com>

Example 3: name <email@example.com>

Example 4: name1 name2 <email@example.com> (arbitrarily long name portion is possible)

Example 5: "name1 name2" <email@example.com>

Example 6: "name2, name1" <email@example.com>

Example 7: "name1 \"name2\" name3" <email@example.com>

International and special characters are supported in the name portion.
If your name portion contains comma the name portion must be enclosed in quotes (as in the Example 6).

If your name portion contains quotes, they must be escaped (prefixed) with the backslash ("\") character and also enclosed in quotes (as in the Example 7).

Items must be separated by comma e.g.
name1 <email1@example.com>, name2 <email2@example.com>, name3 <email3@example.com>

It is also possible to right click a name in the preview pane header, choose "Copy" from the popup menu and paste into message editor. It will be properly recognized (as it is basically just one of the formats above).

The new OE Classic 3.1 update is released!

First off, an important change - make sure you activate the program from the Help/Activate... menu. This only has to be done once. More details are available on our Facebook page.

Here are all the goodies we've prepared for you this time:

Full IncrediMail import - supports all known IncrediMail file formats - 1.0, 2.0 and 2.5!

Zoom setting added to the Message Editor (status bar). Allows you to make fonts larger without actually modifying the font point size in the outgoing email.

New 48x48 icon size for all toolbars.

User customizable folder icons (for user folders).

2-layered header decoder improves message display.

OE Classic automatically inserts a locked IMAP folder when a folder is missing from the server to preserve the folder structure.

Improved UIDL (server message) handling for POP accounts - resume from last aborted message, leave a copy on server for a user-defined time period.

Full list of features in OE Classic 3.1 follows:

New features

• IMAP improvements for less capable servers which don't designate special folders (2 improvements)
• IMAP delete/move support for less capable servers
• Auto detection of IMAP server capabilities (MOVE extension)
• Automatically inserts locked IMAP folder when a folder is missing from the server
• Improved IMAP folder handling and increased compatibility with various servers which have misbehaved (3 fixes)
• Rewritten portions of IMAP code to improve reliability when reconnecting and selecting mailboxes
• Localized names for default IMAP folders (Inbox/Sent/Deleted/Drafts/Junk)
• Improved UIDL handling (POP accounts) - resume from last aborted message, leave a copy on server for a user-defined time period
• Added possibility to stop the process when deleting POP messages
• When adding a new POP account, new defaults are to leave a copy of messages on server and to remove them after 14 days
• IncrediMail import (1.0, 2.0 and 2.5 formats)
• Added "Save As" and "Save as Stationery" in the Message Editor (File menu)
• RE: and FW: prefixes are now also recognized and stripped for non-English languages (e.g. REF: TR: AW: WG: RIF: I: RES: ENC: etc.)
• 2-layered header decoder (decodes HTML entities after decoding a header line)
• Compact All - Changes page size to 4K for older databases which may still use 1K (it makes database operations faster)
• Modern folder selection dialog which also shows shared network locations/drives (Windows 7/8/10 only)
• Improved accessibility for all message dialogs and no sound for Information dialogs (Windows 7/8/10 only)
• Default button changed to "Yes" in "Empty Deleted Items folder" (right click)
• Popup menu for message editor (source) improved and localized
• Redo action and toolbar button available in the Message Editor
• Message Editor toolbar Undo/Redo/Cut/Copy/Paste/SelectAll are now enabled only if available (and not all the time)
• Improved accessibility for the message list, folder list and contact list
• Improved accessibility and localization for Send/Receive window
• Revised accelerator keys for Mark as read/unread
• Reset folder can also automatically repair folder corruption
• Accessibility improvement for message list - Unread/Flagged/Replied/Forwarded/Draft status are read
• Accessibility improvement for Main window and Message Viewer (excessive reading of panel names)
• Inserted Emoji pictures now have accessible name (image alt tag)
• Improved accessibility and localization for the Save Attachments window
• Improved error logging in the Send/Receive window
• Auto rearrange of attachment icons to fit available space, if Message Viewer or Message Editor are resized
• CTRL+V (Paste) in the Message Editor now also works for pictures on the clipboard
• Improved mouse selection and popup menu in Message Editor (enabling of Cut/Copy/Paste buttons)
• High DPI support for the Preview Pane, Message Viewer and Message Editor
• Zoom setting added to the Message Editor (status bar)
• File encoding selection added to Import Wizard for CSV files
• User customizable folder icons (for user folders)
• Added 48x48 size for all toolbar icons
• Free and Pro versions are now unified into one installation file (Pro version requires activation)
• Program and installer are digitally signed

Bug fixes

• Fixed header decoding in a few rare cases
• Fixed antialiasing issues in the Message Editor toolbar
• Updated SSL/TLS libraries with the latest bug/security fixes (v1.0.2u)
• Replaced misbehaving SQLite julianday() with improved calculation
• Pressing Esc in the Message Editor To/Cc/Bcc fields could make the program unresponsive
• Installation size was missing from Apps & Features
• Spell checker Cancel button wasn't working when using the option "Always check spelling before sending"
• Message source wasn't shown properly if the message consisted only of headers
• Outgoing message details were shown in the wrong row in the Send/Receive window
• Tasks were accumulating in the Send/Receive window without being cleaned up (will result as a speedup and less memory usage)
• Spell checker was selecting some words incorrectly triggering a false spelling correction
• IMAP fixes for unrecognized message lists (6 fixes)
• Fix for Polish N acute accent not working on ALTGR + N (and other ALTGR shortcuts on various keyboard layouts)
• Fixed access violation error when closing the main program window with opened message editors or message viewers
• Fixed crash on some configurations when closing Message Editor
• Compatibility adjustments for Windows 2000
• Status bar high DPI sizing fixed in Message Editor and Message Viewer
• Various high DPI misbehavior fixes

At last, OE Classic 3.0 brings you IMAP support!

At last, IMAP support! Also, new Junk Email special folder.

IMAP is a protocol for accessing emails (different than the POP protocol), which allows you to sync emails across multiple devices (e.g. PC, tablet, smartphone, webmail). When email is accessed on a particular device (for example, a smartphone), the next time you open OE Classic on your PC, it will register all the changes you did on the phone (e.g. deleted emails, new emails, flagged emails, etc.). The opposite also works - all the changes done in OE Classic will be shown on other devices as well. In order to work, IMAP requires permanent and stable Internet connection. Adding IMAP does not mean that POP is getting removed. You can choose which protocol you would prefer to use (assuming your email server supports both of them) when configuring an account using the OE Classic account wizard.

Here is a summary of what OE Classic can do, using the IMAP protocol:

• Synchronize messages across multiple devices (e.g. desktop PC, laptop PC, smartphone, tablet, webmail...). Deleting a message, flagging it, marking it as read - such changes will be shown on every device accessing the same mailbox and of course in OE Classic as well.
• Messages are stored on the IMAP server (in the "cloud"), meaning, if emails are lost on your computer (e.g. by a disk failure), the email messages are backed up on the server, so by adding the IMAP account again in OE Classic, you will be able to access your emails again.
• Messages are cached locally (on your disk), once they are opened the first time, so opening them is faster if they are unchanged on the server
• OE Classic flagging is compatible with iPhone/macOS Mail app – so it supports multicolored flags (red, green, yellow, blue etc.). These flags color coding is identical the iPhone/macOS Mail app, and possibly some other IMAP-capable applications as well.
• OE Classic is also compatible with non-standard (but commonly used) IMAP flags like $Forwarded and $MDNSent (labeling a message as forwarded and message delivery notification sent mark)
• OE Classic uses an atomic move to folder operation (MOVE extension) as supported by modern IMAP servers like Gmail.com or Outlook.com. On older servers move operation is a 3-step operation (a combination of the COPY, STORE, and EXPUNGE commands) and if interrupted between steps, for example by a network being disconnected, a bad WIFI etc., it can leave messages "hanging" between two folders, unlike with MOVE which either completes the operation entirely, or does not, thus being called called an atomic operation (from the Greek word "atomos" meaning "uncuttable").
• OE Classic can detect incorrectly expunged messages (flagged as deleted but not expunged from a folder) – these messages will be shown with strikethrough text in OE Classic and can be either viewed or completely deleted.
• Multiple IMAP email accounts are shown separately, each in its own container (like a folder), having separated Inbox/Sent/Deleted/Draft/Junk folders for each account

And you can expect even more goodies in the future updates.

This version also features new storage file format to make room for some of the new features. Files are automatically upgraded so you don't have to care about that. But if you had a backup of your data created in older version, please update the backup as the old backup won't be compatible with the newer file format.

New icons in Folder/Message properties.

Folder color selection now has helpful color icons.

Fixed encoding issues for some messages.

Full list of features in OE Classic 3.0 follows:

New features

• IMAP support!
• Junk Email - a new local folder used by Blocked Senders list (instead of Deleted Items) and for future purposes
• Popup menu item - Empty "Junk Email" Folder
• Additional options in the Folder Properties window - Local File and Synchronize (for IMAP folders)
• New localization files - Russian, Serbian (Latin)
• Improved localization files - Greek, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil)
• Condensed POP logging to improve download speed
• Rewritten parts of the POP retrieval code to improve download speed
• Progress bar precision improved for POP operations
• Huge speed increase (2000%) of the downloaded header list (used in IMAP and message decoder)
• Internal HTTPS to secure all program-to-website communication (even on older Windows)
• SMTP port 587 is now the default port in the Account Wizard/Account Properties (instead of 25)
• Accounts window can be resized (size is saved)
• Color icons for the folder list right click menu
• Improved and faster logging
• Improved accessibility - View/Sort-By in the main menu(s), Help/Contact window, Message/Folder Properties window
• More accurate Outlook Express 6 import
• Compact All now also compacts all DB files (Folders, AddressBook, Identity, Newsgroups)
• Username/Password used for updates are now called Name/License key (or License info)

Bug fixes

• Outlook Express 6 import used an old folder name is the folder was renamed so the imported folder structure had different names than expected
• HTML zoom value (Options/Read) did not reflect the saved value
• Fixed a number of character encoding issues related to loading HTML (displaying a blank message, switching Message Editor Edit/Source/Preview tabs)
• Selecting another folder no longer aborts download (or sending) of emails
• Identity Manager was always using English regardless of the selected program language
• Search tool wasn't case-insensitive for international characters
• Message download was started twice for IMAP/NNTP when navigating to a new message using the Message Viewer window
• From/Reply-To/To/Cc/Bcc/Subject headers were encoded using KOI8-R instead of UTF-8 for some system settings
• Updated SSL/TLS libraries with the latest bug/security fixes (v1.0.2t)
• Updated built-in SQLite with the latest bug fixes (v3.30.1.0)

After long development time, OE Classic 2.9 is finally available. This time, we bring you many great new updates - the list of new features and updates to the existing features is longer than ever!

Spell checker is now built-in into the program and supports 43 different languages or language variations!

Spelling options and dictionary selection.

Blocked senders and Safe senders list editor.

9 new tools in the Message Editor!

Customization of the Message Editor toolbar.

Right-click menus for adding to the Safe Senders or Blocked Senders and other options.

Copy and Paste any image or screenshot into the Message Editor.

8 new tools in the Find window!

New features

• Safe and Blocked senders filter, editor window and right click option for quickly adding to the list
• Spell checker in the Message Editor and spell checker Options (Always check spelling before sending, Ignore words in UPPERCASE, Ignore words with numbers)
• Spell checker dictionary download in Options (41 supported languages or language variations)
• 9 new localization files - Simplified Chinese (China), Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong, Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Slovenian
• 8 new Message Editor tools - Clear Formatting, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, Insert Table, Insert Symbol, Insert Emoji, Right-To-Left/Left-To-Right Paragraph
• 8 new Find window tools - Properties, Select All, Copy to Folder, Move to Folder, Delete, Reply to Sender, Reply to All, Forward
• Preview pane header redesigned to show more info which can be interacted with (right click) - Add to Address Book, Copy (subject or email), Add to Safe Senders/Blocked Senders
• External images are unblocked when a sender is in the Safe Senders list
• Improved focus in Find/Search window - message list is focused after search has completed, messages can be opened using Enter key
• Address Book group items now have the fitting icon
• Various icon modifications for increased visual clarity
• Improved accessibility for Address Book Select window, also the search field is initially focused so typing immediately after opening the window starts the address book search
• View/Encoding menu item for selecting Left-To-Right or Right-To-Left text direction for received messages
• New Text Highlighting Color button in the Message Editor and an additional drop-down next to the color selection buttons (clicking the button applies the color to selected text and clicking drop-down selects a new color)
• Print Preview added in File menu
• Folder related operations are 30% faster (may be noticeable to users having thousands of folders)
• Improvements in right click menu for folders and fixing some inconsistencies
• Auto-detection of email settings attempts to use TLS 1.2 (if server supports it)
• Installation now tests if it can overwrite required files (when upgrading) and if unsuccessful (e.g. blocked by antivirus) it keeps the old installation in place and reports an error to avoid ending with a partial installation
• Improved display of some windows when using high-contrast color schemes or themes
• Customization of Contact list, Folder list and Message list fonts in Options
• Find window - New keyboard shortcuts (Delete/Enter on messages, CTRL shortcuts), main menu items, progress in percentage while searching
• Customization of Message Editor formatting toolbar and large icons for high-DPI screens
• Clipboard images can be directly pasted into the Message Editor (using Paste button)
• Improved auto-selection of account which is used to reply - only if unambiguous (no 2 or more accounts with the same From email)
• Quick selection and display of used spell checker language and message format (Plain Text or HTML) in the Message Editor status bar
• Export of EML files now sets file dates based on the Received date and allows a total of 200 characters in the full path
• Clicking column header now also focuses the message/contact list underneath
• Security options (Advanced) to enable/disable scripting (JavaScript/VBScript) and ActiveX for incoming messages
• Added Copy to the right click menu when editing the group (copies names and emails to clipboard)
• Account Properties - Auto Config button for easier configuration, Authentication type is now under Expert tab, added Authentication type for Outgoing server (SMTP)
• Drag and drop of EML files from Windows shell to OE Classic folder - imports EML files into the folder

Bug fixes

• Message Editor did not show up correctly when maximized
• Plain text messages did not have Content-Transfer-Encoding header specified
• Forwarding a message did not respect the Reply to messages in same format option
• Fixed some High-DPI issues
• Focus is no longer lost after selecting font color in the Message Editor
• Reset List button (Newsgroups) did not work
• Disabled redirection to avoid the issue of some messages not being displayed
• Print no longer duplicates printing headers (if started multiple times)
• Updated visual components to fix some visual glitches and a few other high-DPI fixes
• Improved mouse wheel handling to make it scroll in the Source Editor, Signatures Editor (Options) and some other controls
• Disabled Java and ActiveX (by default) to avoid serious security vulnerabilities associated with them
• Updated SSL/TLS libraries with the latest bug/security fixes (v1.0.2q)
• Updated built-in SQLite with the latest bug fixes (v3.27.2.0)

At last, this version brings multilingual support in 11 languages! More languages will be added, depending on interest and translations will improve in subsequent versions. There are also many smaller changes here and there - improved Message Editor, improved Find window and some important bug fixes. Last but not least, accessibility support has been improved in various areas of the program.

OE Classic now speaks 11 languages and the multilingual support will continue to improve in the new updates

Formatting buttons such as Bold, Italic, Underline etc. in the message editor show status under the text cursor

You can set custom folder colors by right clicking over a folder

Improvements in the CSV import tool, one of them is the choice of a folder where to import

New features

• Added multilingual support with 11 language files (Croatian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish)
• Added multilingual plural rules for counting
• Formatting buttons (Bold, Italic, Underline etc.) in the message editor show status under the text cursor
• More windows can be closed using ESC key - Message Editor, Address Book, Send/Receive
• Find window improvements - Include subfolders checkbox, folder Browse button, closing window by ESC key
• Find added to main window Edit menu and popup menu (right click over folder)
• Option to import CSV file into existing or new address book folder
• Improved recognition of some data fields for CSV file import
• Import/Export window can be resized to fit more data
• Message editor Check names now also validates emails inside groups and checks for duplicate recipients (in the same field)
• Message editor checks for duplicate attachments
• Faster and more accurate email address validator
• Option to set default message direction right-to-left
• Save As message saving now also offers HTML or Text formats
• Custom folder colors (right click menu over folders)
• Plurals in message rules relative dates editor
• 3D panels replaced with flat ones for modern looks
• Better detection in message editor if message was modified (deleting To/Cc/Bcc fields, using File/Save menu item etc.)
• Improved accessibility for Account Properties, Address Book, Column Editor, Contact/Group Properties, Find, Import/Export, Message Editor, Message Rules, Message Viewer, Options, Update

Bug fixes

• No longer jumps to the top of Address Book when items are deleted (Address Book and Main window)
• Typing TAB in the message editor no longer selects horizontal line or image
• Incorrect help shortcuts in the installation script
• Updated SSL/TLS libraries with the latest bug/security fixes (v1.0.2o)
• Updated built-in SQLite with the latest bug fixes (v3.23.1.0)

We are happy to report that OE Classic is one of the most secure programs available based on the independent research regarding the recently discovered "Mailsploit" set of vulnerabilities. There are as many as 30 other email clients affected by these vulnerabilities including some of the very well known ones.

OE Classic is completely unaffected! In fact, it has been unaffected for at least 3 years now, long before the discovery of this.

By using OE Classic, you are safe against this one and also many other email threats because OE Classic employs various other security measures to protect you. As you may know, we carefully monitor everything that happens in the world of computer-security and whenever we learn something new, we implement that in OE Classic to pass on that protection to you as well. You can see more info on all the work done over the years on this page.

Over the years, we also warned our users how unsafe it is to use older operating systems and older email clients which don't take security as seriously as we do and we're so glad others are taking notice of that as well!

References and links to the research:

• Mailsploit demo website
• Article explaining the Mailsploit vulnerability (Security Week)
• Article explaining the Mailsploit vulnerability (Wired)
• Comparison table listing unsafe email clients (lists OE Classic as safe one)