How to Open EML Files without Outlook Express?

The following data section describes about the EML file format and methodologies to open EML files without Outlook Express.

What is EML file format?

EML file format is the file format used to save an email message in the Outlook Express Application & other email clients. EML files are saved as per the MIME RFC 822 standard format.
The EML files contain ASCII Text for the header content and the main message body can contain hyperlinks and attachments.

Now, There have been multiple scenarios in which the user requests to view the EML files without using outlook or any other email clients. Some of those scenarios are:

“How can i access all my emails saved in the EML file format. Is there any Manual method to access my EML files. As i have installed Outlook on my system. Please Suggest!! ”

– Carina, USA

“Is there any other Manual or third party solution to access EML files without Outlook Express mail client installation. Also, I am interested in creating backup of all my EML files. Please suggest a manual solution for that as well!!!!”

– Martina Merlin, UK

As mentioned above, These type of queries have been noticed by the majority of users on multiple user forums. We summed up both the manual as well as automated solution available for the user.

Also Read: Searching for a best solution to open & view multiple EML files. Grab this EML Viewer Online Tool.

The Manual Solution – Open EML Files Without Outlook

When Considering a manual approach, The most easy and doable task in order to access/read/view EML files without Outlook. The EML file can be converted to any other email file format that is easily accessible by the computer system. The process has been defined as follows:

1. Firstly copy all your EML files into a folder. Once the folder is opened, Click on the “Tools” button on the TOP menu and click on “Folder Options”.
2. Click on the tab “view”, Just scroll down to the option “Hide file extensions for known file types”. Make sure that the box beside is unchecked.
3. Click on the button “Apply”. If its active, Then click on “OK”.
4. Again open the folder containing EML files. Its extension would be visible now.
5. Right click on the EML files that can be viewed and choose the option “Rename”. Delete and change the extension to “.mht”.
6. Click on “Next” on the confirmation prompt. The process is complete, all the files can be viewed very easily. Now, You can simply double click on the EML files. As now they will be directly accessible in the web browser.

The above mentioned process illustrates the conversion of EML files to MHT file format. MHT is a Web page archive file format. Web archive file format is a MHTML file format. It easily incorporates images, applets, flash animations into HTML documents.

Above mentioned steps can be followed and the files can be easily converted and accessed in other file formats. The process is easy, But it results in corruption of the EML files. Thus, It is recommended to go for some third party software to avoid data corruption.

The Automated Solution – The Third Party Software

To avoid corruption issues, It is advisable to go for a third party software. One such software is “EML Viewer“. It provides the following set of features as follows:

• Previews all the EML files along with attachments.
• Export EML to PDF documents for data portability.
• Performs quick scan and auto load EML files to generate previews.
• Windows Explorer style to view easily locate folders within EML files

The software can be used in order to access and convert EML files to PDF. Converting the emails to the Adobe Portable Document Format is very easy. The software is completely efficient and effective. It can very easily perform the task at hand. It is the best alternative for the user to consider , when the manual method cannot deliver the desired result.

Conclusion

In the above mentioned article, we have discussed the EML file format. We have also discussed two methods i.e. Manual and Automated solution to Open EML without Outlook Express. The user can very easily access the EML file along with attachments without the installation of Microsoft Outlook Express.