If you still use Windows XP, you might be interested in reading this security notice we wrote to nofity you about Windows XP end of support and potential security implications it has on your data and your system.

For more info read this article on our blog:
Windows XP end of support - What happens after April 8th, 2014?

New features

• Automatic configuration of email accounts in account wizard - settings are fetched from online database, based on email address
• Different column settings for Inbox, Outbox, Newsgroups, Find and Address Book and modified default columns (for Inbox - From column, for Outbox - To column, for Newsgroups - Subject column)
• Added sound notification when new email arrives (a few sound files are supplied with the installation or you can use any other MP3 or WAV file)
• Folder expanded/collapsed state is saved
• System font name/size (for icons and main menu) are also used for displaying lists (messages, folders, contacts) and main/popup menus within OE Classic
• Program graphics have been extracted out of the main executable into separate files (enables you to customize graphics)
• Added validation into account properties and account wizard to avoid entering incorrect settings (e.g. empty server name, empty username or password, invalid email address)
• Generated Message-Id is now 30% shorter and the chance of it being repeated has been reduced to the level of "statistical impossibility"
• Message priority in message editor and drop-down menu for selecting it (high/normal/low), also available in main menu
• Sending message creates message in memory and no longer uses temporary file (no BCC bug this time!)
• Mark All as Read in Edit menu for email and newsgroups folders
• Reply-To information added to replies
• Email links in Original Message quote are now clickable
• Individual accounts added in Send/Receive drop down menu and in main menu to download email from a single account
• Check names function added in message edit window
• Added popup menu for Accounts window and keyboard shortcuts (Return and Delete keys)
• Added signature menu in editor window for selecting multiple signatures
• Signatures can be HTML formatted (click the icon in signature list in Options to toggle between text or HTML)
• If message was edited user is warned before closing it
• SSL libraries have been updated and program can now connect to secure servers using SSL v3.0, TLS v1.0, TLS v1.1 and TLS v1.2

Bug fixes

• "Include this account when receiving e-mail" checkbox in account properties was blocking sending of emails, not just receiving as the option indicates
• Added icons which have been missing under certain toolbar sizes
• Fixed authentication issue with some news servers (eternal-september and a few others)
• Fixed possible access violation when downloading newsgroup messages
• Priority was not interpreted correctly for some messages
• Message-Id was not sent to server
• Various issues with message escaping and unescaping
• Folder actions (New, Rename, Delete...) were not consistently enabled/disabled in main menu like in popup menu
• Reply-To is now used instead of From address when replying to a message
• Account properties no longer refreshes folder or account list if no changes have been done
• Message editor will auto-complete email typing instead of reporting an error if email typing wasn't completed
• Account is properly selected after Add/Properties/Set as Default operations in Accounts window, for Delete operation first account is selected
• To avoid certain issues internal account number is no longer reused but incremented every time

Here is our last update for this year.

New features

• Import from Windows Mail (Windows Vista) and alternative import from Outlook Express (Windows XP 64-bit)
• Spell checking as you type in message editor (available only on Windows 8 for now)
• New POP3 authentication type option - Automatic (automatically uses the most secure method after querying supported methods from server), recommended option if you don't know what to choose
• Address Book - custom sorting direction and sorting by Last Name, First Name
• Column editor for enabling/disabling columns in message list and address book - main menu View/Columns or right click over the columns header (Note: Columns can still be rearranged by dragging as before)
• Address book window now also remembers position and size
• Help button in Send/Receive window (when clicked, automatically appends error log) and Contact in the Help menu (no error log added), both used for requesting user support
• Support for BGSOUND tag (only Internet Explorer supports this tag, for better compatibility use AUDIO tag instead)
• To/Cc/Bcc drop-down lookups now also search through email addresses, not just names
• Message editor TAB key press now keeps focus inside editor (and inserts 4 spaces) while SHIFT + TAB moves focus out of the editor to another control (subject line)
• Visual improvements in import window
• SMTP authentication type is gone from account properties and from account wizard (it only had one option so that option is now automatic)
• Secure Password Authentication (SPA/NTLM) is gone from account properties and account wizard because it is rarely used and unsupported on new servers

Bug fixes

• Relaxed restrictions on email validation, email format errors are now treated as warnings (warns you, but allows you to send email anyway)
• Instead of reporting an error, automatically creates store folder at default location (%LOCALAPPDATA%\OEClassic) if user installs program under different Windows user account
• Default editor font size increased from 8 to 10 points
• Access violation when moving mouse wheel over drop-down items
• Dialog boxes no longer appear centered between two monitors on dual-display but are centered over the parent window instead
• There is no longer a need to click on message editor to start writing a reply because cursor is now properly positioned inside of the editor
• Messages are refreshed immediately after they are downloaded, fixes automatic marking messages as read
• Fixed a few logging bugs which caused incorrect coloring, logging message raw data, slowdowns etc.
• POP3 - APOP and SASL authentications were not working at all, now working as expected
• The use of SMTP servers that didn't require password wasn't possible because password was always sent
• Clicking Previous/Next buttons in message viewer also selects new message in main window list and marks it as read

We have 2 words for you - HTML and Stationery. So with this version OE Classic finally supports sending email in HTML format which has been neglected for way too long, although as we look back now, it wasn't a big technical challenge. And as we added HTML we figured - let's also add stationery support compatible with Outlook Express - so there you have it! To be able to use OE stationery you need to place it in special folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\OEClassicStationery and paths to image files must be relative (you may have to manually modify paths in some stationery files). Of course, different stationery folder is possible.

An example of HTML stationery with various message formatting

Another stationery in message viewer window (also plays background sound)

There are many other improvements so take a look at the list:

New features

• Message editor HTML formatting and HTML outgoing messages
• Stationery email support (compatible with existing Outlook Express/Windows Live Mail stationery)
• Improvements in HTML and plain-text message formatting before sending
• Added a lot of items in message editor main menu
• Simplified installation of upgrades in installer
• Improved detection of external images or other external content
• Improved detection of embedded content like images, background images, scripts etc.
• Improved quoting of replied message
• Message-Id and In-Reply-To are utilized now
• New option tabs (Read, Compose) with options to disable content blocking, include message in reply, set default font for message editor
• Printing contacts in Address Book

Bug fixes

• Improvements and fixes in message list (sorting is faster)
• After clicking on column headers old selection is kept and message list is positioned where the old selection was
• Toolbars are no longer wrapped when window is resized
• If message was opened in viewer window and folder was changed in main window, message Reply/Reply All/Forward were no longer working
• If message is already decoded it is not decoded again when opening in a new message viewer window
• Some buttons and main menu items in separate viewer window are now functional (Print, Previous, Next and Address Book)
• Added missing attachment information when printing emails with attachments
• Minor memory leaks when opening messages
• "Floating point division by zero" when loading message or after clicking on blocked content bar
• Multipart/related content type is no longer detected as empty attachment
• BCC was broken in version 1.64
• Replying to HTML-only messages (without plain-text part) properly displays original message in a reply

This version brings you option for compacting folders. In Outlook Express compact folder was source of many folder corruptions, so we took extra measures to make sure this doesn't happen in OE Classic. To ensure this, compacting has a built in integrity check. So, before the compacting even begins, folder is scanned and checked for possible errors. If there are some errors compact function can detect, it won't start and will report the error to keep your data safe.

As usual, this is not the only new feature - so take a look at the feature list.

Compact can reclaim lost space due to message deletion. It also displays how much space has been lost.

New features

• Compact All option - permanently removes all deleted messages from all folders, also features built in integrity check
• Reply/Forward status displayed in message list icons when message is replied/forwarded
• Updated OE6 import to support reply/forward flags
• Improved MIME type detection when creating outgoing message
• Sending message creates message in memory and no longer uses temporary file
• Added blocked content bar to separate message viewer window
• Preview pane header changes color when message is selected or unselected within preview pane
• Delete key deletes message when preview pane is focused
• Delete command (Edit/Delete, toolbar delete button, CTRL + D) is unified to either delete messages, folders, contacts or unsubscribe from newsgroup based on currently active control
• Printing email shows message details - From, To, Cc, Sent and Subject (does not print your name on the top like in Outlook Express where it couldn't be removed)
• Sending message with empty subject and body is now allowed (displays warning but allows you to send it)

Bug fixes

• Reply/Forward disabled for Outbox messages
• "Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window" error when deleting messages
• Right mouse click popup over message list, folder list and contact list only focuses if clicked over selected items but selects if clicked over unselected items
• Fixed error when trying to create/reply/forward a message without any accounts added
• Restart on identity switch improved to avoid 2 copies of program running simultaneously

After the summer break we're back in the game with new version. We fixed countless bugs (for simplicity we're listing only major ones) and implemented IAF support and customization of toolbar icons. Take a look:

Layout options - now you can customize components in OE Classic to your preference.

New features

• IAF import support (Internet Account File - account settings from Outlook Express or Outlook)
• Layout options for enabling/disabling/positioning various user interface elements like folder list, contact list, preview pane, toolbar, icon size etc.
• Added toolbar tooltip, also shows keyboard shortcuts (useful if toolbar text is hidden)
• Account properties option for toggling automatic STARTTLS capability
• Insert text from file option in message editor

Bug fixes

• Less memory usage (now only windows which are opened use memory)
• Clicking message links in message viewer window starts appropriate action (opens page in default web browser or opens message editor)
• Fixed incorrect background color for checkboxes in Options
• Fixed incorrectly displayed port numbers when viewing account properties
• Use Default Ports in account properties could become enabled even if ports were already at default values
• Message dialogs are now consistent across the program and play standard system sound like regular Windows dialogs (better accessibility)
• Old code from version 1.0 revised, fixing a lot of potential bugs

New features

• New popup menu for the editor and viewer attachments (Open, Print, Save As, Save All), also utilizes double click and keyboard Backspace/Delete/Enter keys
• Opening/executing/printing a file or URL shows detailed error if there is one (e.g. file type not associated with any program, no default web browser etc.), instead of giving up without notice
• Mouse wheel now scrolls control under the pointer without the need to click on that control first
• Save attachments window is now reusable so it can be used for Save Attachments from preview pane or Save All from message viewer
• Save attachments remembers last used folder (for each identity)

Bug fixes

• Keyboard tab switching didn't select first item in the list of attachments for edit and viewer window
• Displayed message is no longer reloaded for some operations like Save As or Add Sender to Address Book, instead it uses a persistent copy in the memory (which makes these operations faster)
• Save attachments window closes when Esc key is pressed

New features

• Improved POP3 listing of messages

Bug fixes

• Fixed max line length exceeded issue
• POP3 receive could not be stopped by clicking Stop button
• UIDL list wasn't saved correctly which caused multiple downloading of same messages (for leave a copy of messages on server option)

Today, we tested OE Classic (as well as our other software) on latest Windows 8.1.

Everything worked as expected and without a glitch.

At last, final version of OE Classic 1.6 has been released with many great new features you'll love! The feature list is huge (largest so far) but the most important of them all is definitely support for Identities as requested by many of you, our valued users. Also, one important new thing is the new task manager. It is not something you will see but it is in fact a main engine of the program, so replacing and improving it was a very delicate task (and well worth it). Now when it is done, it will make implementation of some other features much easier - and first few of such features are already available - for example - checking emails every N minutes would be one of them. There are a number of other improvements as well so please read about them in the list that follows.

Here are some of the new features this version brings:

Identities support - very similar to Outlook Express identities but much easier to use - everything is placed in a single window.

Send and Receive toolbar button now has a drop-down menu with additional options like Send All or Receive All.

Some of the new options are also placed under "General" tab.

New status bar now shows more details about current task - includes more detailed messages, more detailed status and a progress bar.

Detailed list of improvements:

New features

• Identities support - identity is complete set of folders, messages and settings which can be completely different from identity to identity and can also be password protected
• Completely new and rewritten from scratch queue and task manager - it is more stable than the old manager and works fully in the background (as thread which uses second processor core)
• New task manager makes possible new features like background downloading of messages and easier implementation of different protocols (like IMAP4, RSS etc.)
• New options - check messages at startup, check messages every N minutes, always show send/receive window, minimize to tray
• Menu added to Send And Receive button (new options in main menu as well - Receive All and Send All)
• All email addresses (sender and recipients) are validated before sending - checking sender prevents sending email with invalid address your recipient cannot reply to
• Status bar shows additional information when synchronizing - progress bar and info about current task
• Program internally adds configuration option "toolbar.main.email.iconSize" which you can use to make toolbar icons smaller (possible values are "small", "medium", "large")
• Program internally uses registry key "UserDataLocation" inside "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OEClassic" as path to store folder which you can use to move store folder to a different location
• Quick integrity check on startup to detect if critical files/folders are missing
• Send/Receive operation is faster (authentication and disconnect from server)
• POP3 automatically uses STLS if available on server (starts secure communication after initial connection) if SSL/TLS checkbox in settings is unchecked
• Newsgroups now support SSL/TLS (secure news - SNNTP)
• Newsgroups and sending SMTP messages are both more stable and reliable than in any previous version
• Newsgroups browsing is much more responsive - especially if you quickly click several messages one after another
• Error reporting in Send/Receive window contains more information about the error
• Program now automatically detects authentication methods available on server and always tries the most secure method first and if not available then tries less secure ones (this helps in avoiding compromising your email password)
• New option to close send and receive window automatically after a timeout (or to keep it open)
• On first run program window is maximized

Bug fixes

• Very long lines in plain text messages are wrapped
• Fixed drawing issues with email address input buttons (rounded buttons) and copy-paste issues
• Reduced memory usage and faster startup (certain features are now using memory only when you use them)
• All address book email fields are used (previously only personal email was used)
• Sending messages with invalid email addresses has been fixed due to email address validation before sending
• Fixed bolding of message list line with unread messages and columns rearranged to custom order - now text in all columns is bold when message is unread
• Orphaned UIDL are cleaned in scenario where program is used on 2 computers and first keeps messages on server and second deletes them (previously that would leave orphan UIDLs on first computer)
• Outbox is refreshed after a message is sent
• Last or next message is auto-selected after opening folder, deleting messages and moving messages (no selection change after copy)