New features

• [2023-02-01] Improved async user interface update when receiving POP messages (but also for some other operations)
  
  A separate "thread" of code is used to send/receive messages to avoid user interface from freezing. But when it needs to update the user interface (for example with the new message information in the list) it has to "freeze" it for a bit until the update completes. This is now done asynchronously and you will likely see OE Classic working more smoother with less "lagging" in the user interface. This is not the only improvement of this sort we'll do but it is a significant start.

Bug fixes

• [2023-02-01] AOL OAUTH2 wasn't working
  
  If you added AOL account using the Account Wizard "AOL" option which adds it as OAUTH2, due to small omission in code, it wasn't working at all, even though it was normally approved by the AOL "sign in" web page. This is now working properly for POP/IMAP/SMTP accounts. You don't need to re-add AOL account which wasn't working - it should start working by itself, if added as OAUTH2.

Bug fixes

• [2023-01-22] Fixed rare issues with date/time being calculated incorrectly

At last, OE Classic 4.0 is here!

Full list of features in OE Classic 4.0 follows:

New features

• OAUTH2 support for Google/Microsoft/Yahoo/AOL accounts (IMAP/POP/SMTP)
• Completely rewritten IMAP/POP/SMTP implementation which now all support TLS 1.3
• Set as default option in Options/General
• MAPI support (e.g. Send to - Mail recipient)
• Set as default program for opening external .EML files (also "Open with" shell menu)
• Set as default program for "mailto:" links and "Email Link" functionality in some web browsers
• Improved Emoji selection panel in the Message Editor and expanded and updated Emoji set
• New localization files - Turkish, Ukrainian
• Safety Options (Safe/Blocked senders): Load/Save/Copy/Paste/Select All buttons and popup menu for lists, enter keypress to add a new text value into the list
• Paste of comma or new line separated list of email addresses into To/Cc/Bcc is automatically converted to individual items
• Drag and drop of attachments to the message editor
• Completely rewritten message encoder which addresses a number of encoding issues and make a message more valid and more compatible with other programs
• Completely rewritten message decoder which is now 63% faster and more accurate
• Optimized From/To/Cc/Bcc header encoder to create smaller email address items
• More strict error checking in the Account Properties for port settings
• Duplicate recipients are removed automatically when sending a message
• Message editor size optimization creates as small message as possible
• More responsive UI - no longer blocking the communication thread
• Message structure and other information shown in Message Properties/Expert
• Edit/Copy in the main menu copies selected message text to clipboard
• High DPI support (per monitor)
• Improved messaging between Accounts/Options and various windows (Main/Editor/Viewer/Sync) to update modified settings instantly on all windows
• New keyboard shortcut in the Main Window - CTRL+I (jump to Inbox)
• New keyboard shortcuts in the Message Editor - CTRL+SHIFT+S (Insert default signature), CTRL+TAB (Cycle tabs Edit->Source->Preview), CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Reverse cycle tabs Preview->Source->Edit), CTRL+Enter (Send Message)
• Message HTML now entirely created in memory for faster display
• New command line parameter (-identity "Name" "Password") - starts identity "Name" (optional "Password")
• More modular design makes startup faster
• Automatically fix incorrectly specified image file extensions for some emails
• CTRL+drag-and-drop to the Message Editor to copy text from a text editing application or normal drag-and-drop to move text
• Support for separate popup menus for images, hyperlinks and normal text in the Message Viewer/Editor
• Complete rewrite of the HTML display component which fixes its bugs, limitations and memory leaks
• Visual indicator in status bar of the Message Editor modified status
• Options/Advanced: Browser engine (IE7-legacy for obsolete stationery, IE-Edge for modern engine)
• Improved HTML rendering using IE11 engine
• Percent-encoded URLs are decoded to show international characters in the status bar when hovering over links using the mouse pointer
• Improved "mailto:" URI scheme parser supporting UTF-8 characters and the fields To/Cc/Bcc/Subject/Body/In-Reply-To
• Main window status bar can be clicked to open Send/Receive window (if not shown) to monitor details of the ongoing Send/Receive operation
• Options/General: Choose how often the errors will be displayed when checking for messages automatically (Always/After n errors/Never)
• Message rules editing - Double click to edit, right click menu, enter keypress to add a new text value into the list
• Options/Advanced: Warnings are made optional for permanent message delete, empty "Deleted Items" and empty "Junk Email"

Bug fixes

• Fixed spell checker freezing on rare occasions
• Print/Print Preview headers were too tiny on a high DPI system
• Reply/Forward on certain messages could freeze the Message Editor so it would never show up
• Check Names in the Message Editor now checks for duplicate email addresses across all fields (To/Cc/Bcc) instead of just one like before
• Copy/Paste of single image did not work in the Message Editor (copying image and then pasting into another area of the text)
• Switching between Edit/Source/Preview now stops running sounds and effects to avoid audio duplication in stationery
• Preview tab in the Message Editor didn't work for VBScript on Windows 10 or newer
• Embedded images no longer disappear after a message being edited is saved to Drafts
• IMAP fixes for unrecognized message lists (5 fixes)
• Fixed crash on program exit under some circumstances
• Message Editor preview didn't allow clicking on links and link preview in the status bar
• Message Editor popup menu Properties now enabled
• Blocked content bar appeared for a short time if the first opened message had external images
• No more slowdown on messages with invalid external links (showing/replying/forwarding)
• Zoom over 100% didn't scroll initial message to top
• Clicking into Message Editor uses font set by user
• Improved detection of modified message in the Message Editor
• Mouse wheel scrolling no longer shifts keyboard focus to the HTML viewer or editor
• Dragged text object no longer covers drop location in the Message Editor
• Mouse actions didn't set Message Editor modified status
• CTRL-S didn't work while in the Message Editor
• Right-to-left document wasn't properly set when opening RTL drafts
• Tab key in preview pane no longer jumps through message viewer links
• Right click in the Message Editor did not activate Paste button
• Save as Stationery used incorrect filename
• Standard folders (Inbox/Sent/Deleted...) were not localized in the Copy/Move window
• Safety Options window no longer deletes blocked senders if OK is clicked without list modification
• Updated SQLite library (v3.40.0.0)

New features

• OAUTH2 support for Google/Microsoft/Yahoo/AOL accounts (IMAP/POP/SMTP)
• Completely rewritten IMAP/POP/SMTP implementation which now all support TLS 1.3
• Set as default option in Options/General
• MAPI support (e.g. Send to - Mail recipient)
• Set as default program for opening external .EML files (also "Open with" shell menu)
• Set as default program for "mailto:" links and "Email Link" functionality in some web browsers
• Improved Emoji selection panel in the Message Editor and expanded and updated Emoji set
• New localization files - Turkish, Ukrainian
• Safety Options (Safe/Blocked senders): Load/Save/Copy/Paste/Select All buttons and popup menu for lists, enter keypress to add a new text value into the list
• Paste of comma or new line separated list of email addresses into To/Cc/Bcc is automatically converted to individual items
• Drag and drop of attachments to the message editor
• Completely rewritten message encoder which addresses a number of encoding issues and make a message more valid and more compatible with other programs
• Completely rewritten message decoder which is now 63% faster and more accurate
• Optimized From/To/Cc/Bcc header encoder to create smaller email address items
• More strict error checking in the Account Properties for port settings
• Duplicate recipients are removed automatically when sending a message
• Message editor size optimization creates as small message as possible
• More responsive UI - no longer blocking the communication thread
• Message structure and other information shown in Message Properties/Expert
• Edit/Copy in the main menu copies selected message text to clipboard
• High DPI support (per monitor)
• Improved messaging between Accounts/Options and various windows (Main/Editor/Viewer/Sync) to update modified settings instantly on all windows
• New keyboard shortcut in the Main Window - CTRL+I (jump to Inbox)
• New keyboard shortcuts in the Message Editor - CTRL+SHIFT+S (Insert default signature), CTRL+TAB (Cycle tabs Edit->Source->Preview), CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Reverse cycle tabs Preview->Source->Edit), CTRL+Enter (Send Message)
• Message HTML now entirely created in memory for faster display
• New command line parameter (-identity "Name" "Password") - starts identity "Name" (optional "Password")
• More modular design makes startup faster
• Automatically fix incorrectly specified image file extensions for some emails
• CTRL+drag-and-drop to the Message Editor to copy text from a text editing application or normal drag-and-drop to move text
• Support for separate popup menus for images, hyperlinks and normal text in the Message Viewer/Editor
• Complete rewrite of the HTML display component which fixes its bugs, limitations and memory leaks
• Visual indicator in status bar of the Message Editor modified status
• Options/Advanced: Browser engine (IE7-legacy for obsolete stationery, IE-Edge for modern engine)
• Improved HTML rendering using IE11 engine
• Percent-encoded URLs are decoded to show international characters in the status bar when hovering over links using the mouse pointer
• Improved "mailto:" URI scheme parser supporting UTF-8 characters and the fields To/Cc/Bcc/Subject/Body/In-Reply-To
• Main window status bar can be clicked to open Send/Receive window (if not shown) to monitor details of the ongoing Send/Receive operation
• Options/General: Choose how often the errors will be displayed when checking for messages automatically (Always/After n errors/Never)
• Message rules editing - Double click to edit, right click menu, enter keypress to add a new text value into the list
• Options/Advanced: Warnings are made optional for permanent message delete, empty "Deleted Items" and empty "Junk Email"

Bug fixes

• Fixed spell checker freezing on rare occasions
• Print/Print Preview headers were too tiny on a high DPI system
• Reply/Forward on certain messages could freeze the Message Editor so it would never show up
• Check Names in the Message Editor now checks for duplicate email addresses across all fields (To/Cc/Bcc) instead of just one like before
• Copy/Paste of single image did not work in the Message Editor (copying image and then pasting into another area of the text)
• Switching between Edit/Source/Preview now stops running sounds and effects to avoid audio duplication in stationery
• Preview tab in the Message Editor didn't work for VBScript on Windows 10 or newer
• Embedded images no longer disappear after a message being edited is saved to Drafts
• IMAP fixes for unrecognized message lists (5 fixes)
• Fixed crash on program exit under some circumstances
• Message Editor preview didn't allow clicking on links and link preview in the status bar
• Message Editor popup menu Properties now enabled
• Blocked content bar appeared for a short time if the first opened message had external images
• No more slowdown on messages with invalid external links (showing/replying/forwarding)
• Zoom over 100% didn't scroll initial message to top
• Clicking into Message Editor uses font set by user
• Improved detection of modified message in the Message Editor
• Mouse wheel scrolling no longer shifts keyboard focus to the HTML viewer or editor
• Dragged text object no longer covers drop location in the Message Editor
• Mouse actions didn't set Message Editor modified status
• CTRL-S didn't work while in the Message Editor
• Right-to-left document wasn't properly set when opening RTL drafts
• Tab key in preview pane no longer jumps through message viewer links
• Right click in the Message Editor did not activate Paste button
• Save as Stationery used incorrect filename
• Standard folders (Inbox/Sent/Deleted...) were not localized in the Copy/Move window
• Safety Options window no longer deletes blocked senders if OK is clicked without list modification
• Updated SQLite library (v3.40.0.0)

New features

• [2022-12-07] OAUTH2 support for Google/Microsoft/Yahoo/AOL accounts (IMAP/POP/SMTP)
  
  We've now added support for Yahoo and AOL accounts for OAUTH2 after the long approval process. The authentication process is the same like with other services - it opens up a web browser to log in and then after the log in has completed you return back to OE Classic to finish adding an account. Note, the icon for Microsoft account has changed to better comply with their branding guidelines but it is the same process to authenticate.

Bug fixes

• [2022-12-07] Fixed spell checker freezing on rare occasions
  
  This was a long-standing bug. For some specific emails spell checker which you activate with F7 key could freeze. We couldn't find such emails for a very long time but now we have and of course we've fixed the issue. Spell check should no longer freeze.

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).