Outlook 2003 converts html to plain text... 1

[Ronjie]

Ok... this might turn to a long message but please bear with me:

Windows XP Home SP3
Outlook 2003
( I also have AVG Free 8 that I'm really leary of turning off the mail scanner, what with all the email fraud out there )

I find this situation typical with email that comes in from Hotmail.

Where do I start?

Ok, humming along and only after I've done some Microsoft / Windows updates do I see this issue.

Tried to do a detect and repair, NG.
Called MS, and allthough most of the techs are from overseas, they were willing to try to help.
One tech told me to download the new hotmail connector ( seems the difference is that the origional connector in Outlook is an Http connector, the new one is an IMAP connector ) works for a while and then goes back to ruining graphic email.

Same one told me to uninstall and reinstall worked for short time then reverted.

I have been on the phone with different MS techs that have remoted into my machine, will check some things here, and uncheck others... but no good.

Another tech remotely created on my computer another outlook profile... that worked for a short time too... but reverted.

I just uninstalled and reinstalled, and am finally frustrated. I did search and found this forum, hope you guys can help.

I'm finding that not even strictly html emails are converted, but even if a friend sends me an email with formatted text, outlook will sometimes convert, and sometimes not.

Another tech said something about corrupted entries in my registry, but didn't elaborate, as he wanted to see if his other solution would worked. It did - for a short time.

Oh, also tried going back from Windows Live Hotmail, to the classic Hotmail. No help there either.

Please help me!

Thanx,

Ron V.

UPDATE:

I'm now finding that Outlook "claims" to send message, but now isn't. I've a long time ago made it a habit to send a bcc to myself to make sure messages go out, thing is, the sent folder in Outlook and at Hotmail's webmail site don't show it, so I'm having to send those messages again with the webmail interface, which bites, as I don't have the same formatting control that I would with Outlook.

FURTHER UPDATE:

BTW, as per other information that I had gathered on this, there seems to be a limit to the size of the pst file, typically 2g, but for Outlook 2003 and 2007 it's supposed to use a different format and allow for 20g ( per microsoft website ) I wasn't sure how to change this as the information to changing it in the registry didn't make a lot of sense to me. ( some of the paths listed were not conistant with what I had )

So what I did was create another pst file and dumped all the stuff I wasn't using immediately into the second pst file, but attached it so that I could still have access to it via outlook. Then uninstalled it, ran a defrag (actually ran Norton's SpeedDisk ) on my h/d and then reinstalled it. As usual, it worked for a short time and "broke" again. I went to look at my pst files and neither were near the 2g mark.

Am I even in the right ballpark? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Please help as I'm trying to use Outlook with the Hotmail account, Gmail's IMAP account, and 2 pop3 accounts. Where if I can't use outlook, I end up going to each sites webmail site to check on my mail.... this can drive anyone nuts.

Thanx,

Ron V.

 

[donb01]

I'm using the paid version of AVG internet security, and I have had a number of "words" with AVG about how their new product sucks major sphincter - it is now as bad if not worse than some of the symantec and mcafee crap out there.

If you go into tools - options - other - advanced - add-in manager you will see something called "AVG Exchange Extension." I have found that taking the check mark out of that and saying OK will restore your ability to receive normal HTML mail without messing up the virus protection.

Be aware that the next time is downloads a PROGRAM update (not normal definition updates) it will turn it back on and you will have to go shut it off again. I have complained to AVG and they say I'm full of it and there is no problem, but I have had the same problem on 3 machines and disabling that fixes them every time (and most of them I have don't even run in an exchange environment).

To their credit, the last update they just did had a lot of bugfixes in it for things I've been complaining about - outlook no longer crashes on exit and says it has to notify MS, and some of the web surfing options no longer corrupt .gif and .jpg files on perfectly harmless websites. I'm waiting for them to fix how slow it makes web browsing.

I'm also seriously considering downgrading back to 7.5 and renewing my license for that. I never had any problems with 7.5 for anything.

 

[Ronjie]

Thanx for your response, Don, but I'm using AVG Free ver 8, and can't find any reference to Exchange at all. Besides, this issue isn't with Exchange, it's primarily with Hotmail, unless Hotmail is using the Exchange format for their post office?

Ron V.

 

[donb01]

So you looked in the add-in manager of outlook and the plugin is not there?

Are you one of the "old grandfathered users" using hotmail under outlook like I am - where it treats it just like any other mail account, or are you under the new subscription service where you have to pay to access your hotmail with outlook?

I haven't had any issues with AVG bothering my hotmail under outlook that I can recall. I'll have to look around if see if there is any indication it would be affected the same way.

 

[Ronjie]

So you looked in the add-in manager of outlook and the plugin is not there?

--->>> My apologies, I misunderstood your post, and thought you were pointing me around in the AVG program. Don't ask why, but Outlook didn't occure to me. Kudos to you bud, it seems to be working so far, but I'll be monitoring it. I went one further, after I unchecked the AVG Exchange plug in, I removed the Hotmail account from my Outlook list, and then re installed it ( so that there wasn't anything in the "cache" to go back on )

Are you one of the "old grandfathered users" using hotmail under outlook like I am - where it treats it just like any other mail account, or are you under the new subscription service where you have to pay to access your hotmail with outlook?

--->>> Well, yes, I'm gonna say that I'm "Grandfathered" in as I don't pay for the abliity to use Outlook with Hotmail. On the other hand, I can't "pop" the account, I have to use Outlook's built in HTTP connector to view my email ( as I said before, downloading their IMAP Connector didn't solve my problems much, so I dumped it ).

I haven't had any issues with AVG bothering my hotmail under outlook that I can recall. I'll have to look around if see if there is any indication it would be affected the same way.

--->>> Thanx again.

Ron V.

 

[donb01]

Sorry - re-reading my post about the menu sequence I can see that I didn't make it clear I was referring to outlook. I'm glad you found it and it's working.

Remember where it is if the problem starts happening again, as it is likely AVG downloaded a program update and then went and made sure the check mark was still in there.

I imagine I'll wait a bit and go back in there and turn it on after a while and see if they fixed the bug. No sense leaving it off forever if they fix it....

 

[cmeagan656]

If you go into tools - options - other - advanced - add-in manager you will see something called "AVG Exchange Extension."

I'd be careful with this. I just tried it because I was having the same issues as Ronjie. When I disabled the "AVG Exchange Extension my emails were no longer certified by AVG. That got me thinking so I ran a little test.

Because I use GMail for my email and pop it into Outlook 2K3 I couldn't test send the Eicar test virus because GMAil would catch it before it was popped into Outlook. Therefore, I set the attachment filter in AVG to remove all attachments and sent myself a .txt file. It came through without a problem when the AVG Exchange Extension was DISABLED but was blocked when the AVG Exchange Extension was ENABLED.

Therefore I came to the conclusion that even if you don't run Outlook in and Exchange environment you need to have the AVG Exchange Extension enabled or the emails will not be scanned for viruses.

If you run this test make sure that you don't open any other email except for the test email while testing otherwise any attachment will be stripped from the email.

Cheers.

 

[cmeagan656]

the last update they just did had a lot of bugfixes in it for things I've been complaining about - outlook no longer crashes on exit and says it has to notify MS, ...

This is true IF you have the AVG Exchange Extension DISABLED. However, see my post above re what I believe is the danger in disabling the AVG Exchange Extension. If you have the AVG Exchange Extenstion ENABLED Outlook still crashes on exit. At least for me it does.

As mentioned above I DO NOT operate in an Exchange environment. It is strictly POP3 from GMail.

Cheers.

 

[donb01]

I have no other ideas. AVG keeps telling me I am FOS and there is no problem, and the problem is with my computer. I might buy that if it wasn't exactly the same on my home computer, office computer and laptop that worked just fine before I installed 8.0. I think they rushed the product to market too soon without adequate testing, and now they are overwhelmed with problems.

All I know is that with everything running HTML is stripped off my E-mail, outlook crashes on exit, half the time GIF or JPG files like photos and buttons on websites don't show up until you refresh the page at least once - sometimes 2 or 3 times, I constantly get "connection interrupted" errors while surfing, slow site access times and browsing sucks overall, and if i have the MSN messenger filter thing turned on it blocks the MSN messenger plugin from connecting on Trillian Astra 4.0 (granted, Alpha). None of these products existed in 7.5!

Disabling the exchange add-in was the first workaround I've found that seemed to help some of the E-mail problems, but if that stops scanning altogether then that's not a good solution either.

Looks like the real solution is to go back to 7.5 or switch products until 8.0 is a mature product!

 

[Ronjie]

I have no other ideas. AVG keeps telling me I am FOS and there is no problem, and the problem is with my computer. I might buy that if it wasn't exactly the same on my home computer, office computer and laptop that worked just fine before I installed 8.0. I think they rushed the product to market too soon without adequate testing, and now they are overwhelmed with problems.

All I know is that with everything running HTML is stripped off my E-mail, outlook crashes on exit, half the time GIF or JPG files like photos and buttons on websites don't show up until you refresh the page at least once - sometimes 2 or 3 times, I constantly get "connection interrupted" errors while surfing, slow site access times and browsing sucks overall, and if i have the MSN messenger filter thing turned on it blocks the MSN messenger plugin from connecting on Trillian Astra 4.0 (granted, Alpha). None of these products existed in 7.5!

Disabling the exchange add-in was the first workaround I've found that seemed to help some of the E-mail problems, but if that stops scanning altogether then that's not a good solution either.

Looks like the real solution is to go back to 7.5 or switch products until 8.0 is a mature product!

The only problem that I was having with Outlook and AVG was that Outlook was converting any graphic email coming from Hotmail to text. Your solution seems to have solved my problem so far.

I'd be careful with this. I just tried it because I was having the same issues as Ronjie. When I disabled the "AVG Exchange Extension my emails were no longer certified by AVG....

Therefore I came to the conclusion that even if you don't run Outlook in and Exchange environment you need to have the AVG Exchange Extension enabled or the emails will not be scanned for viruses.

You may be right that disableing the plugin as don suggests will disable the anti virus capability within Outlook, but I'm not worried as I have AVG running resident anyway, and the way I see it (I'm a tech, not an engineer) AVG will protect me anyway. Yes the plug in would be added protection, but I don't think I'll have a problem otherwise.

Thanx guys!

Ronjie

 

[cmeagan656]

I think that I've figured this out. What you need to do is disable the e-mail certification rather than the AVG Exchange Extension. Disabling the e-mail certification does not disable the e-mail scanning but it does resolve the mucked up HTML e-mail issue. At least it did for me.

The following is from FAQ 1376 at

http://www.grisoft.com/ww.faq.num-1087#faq_1087:

How to enable or disable e-mail certification

To enable or disable adding of AVG certification text to your incomming or outgoing e-mails, please proceed as follows:

* Open AVG by double-click on its icon on Desktop or in system tray.
* Open menu Tools -> Advanced settings.
* In the left tree click on E-mail Scanner.
* Enable or disable Certify e-mail for incomming or outgoing e-mails.
* If you wish to change the certification text, please click on Certification in the left tree, and edit the text for incomming or outgoing messages.
* Save the settings using button OK.

In some cases, the certification may not be added to an e-mail, even though the certification is enabled:

* there is digital signature in the e-mail (the certification would damage the signature)
* in MS Outlook, empty e-mails in RTF and HTML format are not certified due to technical limitation

Note:
Enabling or disabling certification does not have any effect on testing of your messages with AVG. The option to enable or disable checking of e-mails can be set up after double-click on E-mail Scanner in the main AVG window.

NOTE: Having the AVG Exchange Extension enabled causes Outlook 2K3 to crash on exit however I get around this by disabling it before I close OL2K3 and re-enabling it after I open OL2K3,

Cheers.