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From: VanguardLH on 6 Aug 2010 16:09
Bobbi wrote:

> Hi, VanguardLH. Thanks for your thorough questions below. I'll intermix my
> replies in Upper Case to make them easier to spot, so don't think I'm
> yelling at you.
>
> "VanguardLH" <V(a)nguard.LH> wrote in message
> news:i3b0d2$ar0$1(a)news.albasani.net...
>> Bobbi wrote:
>>
>>> Trying to download an image from a MAC user into Outlook Express,
>>
>> Nope. You download emails into OE.
> WELL, THE MESSAGE IS FROM A MAC USER, AND SHE'S THE ONLY ONE I'M HAVING THIS
> PROBLEM WITH.
>>
>>> I'm having
>>> trouble opening jpgs and certain other attachments from her.
>>
>> Just HOW are you "opening" the attachments?
> NORMALLY, I CLICK ON THE ATTACHMENT SYMBOL AND ANOTHER WINDOW OPENS WHICH
> HAS THE NAMES OF THE FILE(S) IN THE TOP BOX. THEN I CAN EITHER CLICK ON
> THOSE FILE NAMES AND HAVE THEM OPEN IN THE APPROPRIATE PROGRAM, OR DRAG THEM
> TO A DIRECTORY, OR DROP THEM ON A DESKTOP ICON SUCH AS MS PAINT, ETC.
>>
>> Have you tried purging your web browser's TIF folder?
> YES (BUT IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO BE REMINDED)
>>
>> Have you SAVED the attachment to a file on your hard drive and then
>> double-click it (in Windows Explorer) to see if you can successfully
>> extract the attachment without corruption and successfully view the
>> saved attachment from a file on the hard drive?
> I CAN'T SAVE THE JPG FILE IN THE SAME WAY I CAN SAVE JPGS FROM EVERYONE
> ELSE. I CAN'T GRAB IT EASILY.
>>
>>> One of my
>>> attempts yields the following error message:
>>>
>>> "Cannot find the C:\WINDOWS\system32\mshtml.hlp Help file. Check to see
>>> that
>>> the file exists on your disk. If it doesn't, you need to reinstall it."
>>
>> And what do the other attempts yield?
> I CAN RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE IN THE OUTLOOK EXPRESS PREVIEW WINDOW. THE
> OPTION "SAVE PICTURE AS...." DOESN'T WORK; I GET AN ERROR MESSAGE "THE
> SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILE SPECIFIED." I CAN CHOOSE COPY, WHICH PUTS IT ON
> THE CLIPBOARD, THEN OPEN MS PAINT AND PASTE IT THERE, THEN SAVE IT AS A JPG.
> BUT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SAVE IT IN THE SAME WAY I DO FOR JPGS FROM EVERYONE
> ELSE.
>>
>> What was the filetype of THAT attachment in the e-mail where THAT error
>> message popped up?
> JPGS. (I DON'T HAVE PROBLEMS WITH OTHER TYPES OF DOCUMENTS, LIKE DOC OR PDF,
> FROM THIS PERSON, JUST JPGS.)
>>
>> What the attached file named "mshtml.hlp"? There is no file named
>> mshtml.HLP under the C:\Windows\system32 folder in Windows XP.
> THAT WAS THE ERROR MESSAGE THAT POPPED UP WHILE I WAS TRYING DIFFERENT
> THINGS TO TRY TO SAVE THE FILE. IT DID SAY "HLP" (NOT "DLL"). DO I HAVE A
> VIRUS?
>>
>> There is an mshtml.DLL file there but it certainly isn't a .hlp file.
>> See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa741312(VS.85).aspx.
>>
>>> Couldn't find that file After googling the problem, I found some old
>>> posts
>>> suggesting a problem between IE7 and Outlook Express 6. However, I think
>>> the
>>> problem is only with mail I get from a certain person who uses a MAC. I
>>> haven't noticed that problem coming from people using Windows machines.
>>>
>>> Anyone have any information?
>>
>> I, too, see forum posts mentioning the problem appears to be with IE7
>> and SP-2. So the solution is probably to install SP-3 or move to IE8 or
>> do both.
> I HAVE SP3.
>>
>> One workaround is to right-click on an image and select Copy. Then
>> paste it into an image editor (e.g., MS Paint) and save from there.
>> That would work for embedded images (disposition=inline) within the
>> e-mail body but not for attached files (disposition=attach).
>>
>> If the problem is incorporate to OE6, that's a long-dead product so
>> there will be no further updates to fix this problem.
> WELL, IT WORKS GREAT FOR ME OTHER THAN THIS ONE INDIVIDUAL WITH A MAC. I'M
> JUST WONDERING IF THERE'S SOME ENCODING PROBLEM WHEN HER COMPUTER SENDS
> NON-TEXT FILES (JPGS, ANYWAY). BUT SHE SAYS NO ONE ELSE IS COMPLAINING.)
>
> I'LL CHECK FOR YOUR FURTHER RESPONSES.

While the problematic e-mail is selected, hit Ctrl+F3 to view the source
code for the e-mail. Find the MIME part wherein the image is encoded.
A MIME part is required if the image is actually *in* the e-mail either
with disposition=inline (shows in the body of the e-mail) or with
disposition=attach (the client shows it as a separate entity or
attachment).

If you don't see a MIME part then the image is not inside the e-mail.
Instead it is linked to some file on some other host. You should have
configured OE to *not* display linked images as those are often used as
web beacons by spammers and marketers to determine if you opened their
e-mail (which gets you to the top of their mailing list for more spam).
Web beacons can also be used by non-spam senders, like your friends, by
using MsgTag or other similar services that can track if you opened the
sender's e-mail, how many times you opened it, and when you opened it.
That means the sender gets to invade your privacy regarding how you
handle your e-mails.

In OE, Tools -> Options -> Security tab, is the "Block images and other
external content in HTML e-mail" option enabled? It should be enabled
if you want to be secure when reading HTML formatted e-mails.

You cannot save a linked image because you don't have it. That image is
not inside your e-mail. It is off on some other host. You're stuck
trying to capture the image, like the trick of copy-n-paste into MS
Paint or using a screen capture utility. Tell the sender to stop
linking to images. Put the images *in* their e-mail (inline or
attached). With the above option enabled, you would've seen a red X
where was the linked image letting you know that it was not actually in
the e-mail that you received because the external content for it got
blocked.
From: Bobbi on 7 Aug 2010 01:19
Hi, VanguardLH-

That was very interesting. Well, the message in question did have a MIME
part. In fact, PA Bear suggested I send the message to myself and see if I
could then get the attachment, and that did indeed worked. I don't know what
that implies.

Bobbi

"VanguardLH" <V(a)nguard.LH> wrote in message
news:i3hq4l$n65$1(a)news.albasani.net...
> Bobbi wrote:
>
>> Hi, VanguardLH. Thanks for your thorough questions below. I'll intermix
>> my
>> replies in Upper Case to make them easier to spot, so don't think I'm
>> yelling at you.
>>
>> "VanguardLH" <V(a)nguard.LH> wrote in message
>> news:i3b0d2$ar0$1(a)news.albasani.net...
>>> Bobbi wrote:
>>>
>>>> Trying to download an image from a MAC user into Outlook Express,
>>>
>>> Nope. You download emails into OE.
>> WELL, THE MESSAGE IS FROM A MAC USER, AND SHE'S THE ONLY ONE I'M HAVING
>> THIS
>> PROBLEM WITH.
>>>
>>>> I'm having
>>>> trouble opening jpgs and certain other attachments from her.
>>>
>>> Just HOW are you "opening" the attachments?
>> NORMALLY, I CLICK ON THE ATTACHMENT SYMBOL AND ANOTHER WINDOW OPENS WHICH
>> HAS THE NAMES OF THE FILE(S) IN THE TOP BOX. THEN I CAN EITHER CLICK ON
>> THOSE FILE NAMES AND HAVE THEM OPEN IN THE APPROPRIATE PROGRAM, OR DRAG
>> THEM
>> TO A DIRECTORY, OR DROP THEM ON A DESKTOP ICON SUCH AS MS PAINT, ETC.
>>>
>>> Have you tried purging your web browser's TIF folder?
>> YES (BUT IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO BE REMINDED)
>>>
>>> Have you SAVED the attachment to a file on your hard drive and then
>>> double-click it (in Windows Explorer) to see if you can successfully
>>> extract the attachment without corruption and successfully view the
>>> saved attachment from a file on the hard drive?
>> I CAN'T SAVE THE JPG FILE IN THE SAME WAY I CAN SAVE JPGS FROM EVERYONE
>> ELSE. I CAN'T GRAB IT EASILY.
>>>
>>>> One of my
>>>> attempts yields the following error message:
>>>>
>>>> "Cannot find the C:\WINDOWS\system32\mshtml.hlp Help file. Check to see
>>>> that
>>>> the file exists on your disk. If it doesn't, you need to reinstall it."
>>>
>>> And what do the other attempts yield?
>> I CAN RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE IN THE OUTLOOK EXPRESS PREVIEW WINDOW. THE
>> OPTION "SAVE PICTURE AS...." DOESN'T WORK; I GET AN ERROR MESSAGE "THE
>> SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILE SPECIFIED." I CAN CHOOSE COPY, WHICH PUTS IT
>> ON
>> THE CLIPBOARD, THEN OPEN MS PAINT AND PASTE IT THERE, THEN SAVE IT AS A
>> JPG.
>> BUT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SAVE IT IN THE SAME WAY I DO FOR JPGS FROM
>> EVERYONE
>> ELSE.
>>>
>>> What was the filetype of THAT attachment in the e-mail where THAT error
>>> message popped up?
>> JPGS. (I DON'T HAVE PROBLEMS WITH OTHER TYPES OF DOCUMENTS, LIKE DOC OR
>> PDF,
>> FROM THIS PERSON, JUST JPGS.)
>>>
>>> What the attached file named "mshtml.hlp"? There is no file named
>>> mshtml.HLP under the C:\Windows\system32 folder in Windows XP.
>> THAT WAS THE ERROR MESSAGE THAT POPPED UP WHILE I WAS TRYING DIFFERENT
>> THINGS TO TRY TO SAVE THE FILE. IT DID SAY "HLP" (NOT "DLL"). DO I HAVE A
>> VIRUS?
>>>
>>> There is an mshtml.DLL file there but it certainly isn't a .hlp file.
>>> See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa741312(VS.85).aspx.
>>>
>>>> Couldn't find that file After googling the problem, I found some old
>>>> posts
>>>> suggesting a problem between IE7 and Outlook Express 6. However, I
>>>> think
>>>> the
>>>> problem is only with mail I get from a certain person who uses a MAC. I
>>>> haven't noticed that problem coming from people using Windows machines.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone have any information?
>>>
>>> I, too, see forum posts mentioning the problem appears to be with IE7
>>> and SP-2. So the solution is probably to install SP-3 or move to IE8 or
>>> do both.
>> I HAVE SP3.
>>>
>>> One workaround is to right-click on an image and select Copy. Then
>>> paste it into an image editor (e.g., MS Paint) and save from there.
>>> That would work for embedded images (disposition=inline) within the
>>> e-mail body but not for attached files (disposition=attach).
>>>
>>> If the problem is incorporate to OE6, that's a long-dead product so
>>> there will be no further updates to fix this problem.
>> WELL, IT WORKS GREAT FOR ME OTHER THAN THIS ONE INDIVIDUAL WITH A MAC.
>> I'M
>> JUST WONDERING IF THERE'S SOME ENCODING PROBLEM WHEN HER COMPUTER SENDS
>> NON-TEXT FILES (JPGS, ANYWAY). BUT SHE SAYS NO ONE ELSE IS COMPLAINING.)
>>
>> I'LL CHECK FOR YOUR FURTHER RESPONSES.
>
> While the problematic e-mail is selected, hit Ctrl+F3 to view the source
> code for the e-mail. Find the MIME part wherein the image is encoded.
> A MIME part is required if the image is actually *in* the e-mail either
> with disposition=inline (shows in the body of the e-mail) or with
> disposition=attach (the client shows it as a separate entity or
> attachment).
>
> If you don't see a MIME part then the image is not inside the e-mail.
> Instead it is linked to some file on some other host. You should have
> configured OE to *not* display linked images as those are often used as
> web beacons by spammers and marketers to determine if you opened their
> e-mail (which gets you to the top of their mailing list for more spam).
> Web beacons can also be used by non-spam senders, like your friends, by
> using MsgTag or other similar services that can track if you opened the
> sender's e-mail, how many times you opened it, and when you opened it.
> That means the sender gets to invade your privacy regarding how you
> handle your e-mails.
>
> In OE, Tools -> Options -> Security tab, is the "Block images and other
> external content in HTML e-mail" option enabled? It should be enabled
> if you want to be secure when reading HTML formatted e-mails.
>
> You cannot save a linked image because you don't have it. That image is
> not inside your e-mail. It is off on some other host. You're stuck
> trying to capture the image, like the trick of copy-n-paste into MS
> Paint or using a screen capture utility. Tell the sender to stop
> linking to images. Put the images *in* their e-mail (inline or
> attached). With the above option enabled, you would've seen a red X
> where was the linked image letting you know that it was not actually in
> the e-mail that you received because the external content for it got
> blocked.


From: VanguardLH on 7 Aug 2010 15:12
Bobbi wrote:

> That was very interesting. Well, the message in question did have a
> MIME part. In fact, PA Bear suggested I send the message to myself
> and see if I could then get the attachment, and that did indeed
> worked. I don't know what that implies.

A problem in the encoding used within the MIME part that defines the
attachment's content. Some decoders don't have problems with slightly
corrupted image files. Some do. OE is pretty old (died in 2002 with
only security updates since and one registry hack added to specify
positioning of signature and top/bottom posting). Image standards have
evolved since then and OE may not handle them well. Forwarding the
message to yourself (inline and not as an attachment) probably
reformulates the MIME encoding so OE can handle it. That's just a
guess since it appears OE is repairing the content when it has to
resend it. It's been a long time since I actively used OE. For me,
it's mostly a test tool now.

The folks over in the microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general group
might know better why a corrupted image attachment becomes viewable if
you forward the original problematic e-mail to yourself.
From: PA Bear [MS MVP] on 7 Aug 2010 15:43
VanguardLH wrote:
<snip>
> The folks over in the microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general group
> might know better why a corrupted image attachment becomes viewable if
> you forward the original problematic e-mail to yourself.

OE General as well as IE General were dropped from the MS newsserver in
early July. While they're still available on other newsservers, they're
both pretty much spam forums now.

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