Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

October 16, 2008

Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I get some

rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For example,

I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the latest:

"First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new offerings

around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be hearing

more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre attending ..."

Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters? I tried

changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial Black and

Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight differences but

I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they might be

related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or changed any

fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for WinXP.

--

Pete B

October 17, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

[Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

Pete B wrote:

> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I get some

> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

> example,

> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the latest:

>

> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new offerings

> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be hearing

> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre attending

> ..."

>

> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters? I

> tried

> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial Black

> and

> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight differences

> but

> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they might be

> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or changed

> any

> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>

> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for

> WinXP.

October 17, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented to

eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I would still

like to definitively and specifdically know why this started happening and

how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever happened until

just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly they

could be summed up as "Live with it".

--

Pete B

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>

> Pete B wrote:

>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I get

>> some

>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

>> example,

>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>> latest:

>>

>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new offerings

>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be hearing

>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre attending

>> ..."

>>

>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters? I

>> tried

>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial Black

>> and

>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight differences

>> but

>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they might be

>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or changed

>> any

>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>

>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for

>> WinXP.

>

October 17, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period. There's

nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always send

emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's concerned.

Pete B wrote:

> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented to

> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I would

> still

> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started happening and

> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever happened

> until

> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly they

> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>

> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>

>> Pete B wrote:

>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I get

>>> some

>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

>>> example,

>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>> latest:

>>>

>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new offerings

>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>> hearing

>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre attending

>>> ..."

>>>

>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters? I

>>> tried

>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial Black

>>> and

>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight differences

>>> but

>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they might be

>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or changed

>>> any

>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>

>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for

>>> WinXP.

October 18, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all the

technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view them

now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the last

seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any one

sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since I

installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security service

updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite often,

that took place around that time. This is something specific to Outlook

Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other software I am

running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored right on

this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until recently, so it

is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email client

behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and Mozilla and

others because I have seen it in emails from those clients as well as MS

clients, or something caused by my ISP email server software somehow (which

I admit would not surprise me), or else it is something that was caused by

some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system (which is my mosty likely

suspect).

I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the forums

where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by email, I

have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when they view

forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere near the

degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something other than my

PC itself.

I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of recent

times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

--

Pete B

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period. There's

> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always send

> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>

> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

> concerned.

>

> Pete B wrote:

>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented to

>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I would

>> still

>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started happening

>> and

>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever happened

>> until

>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly they

>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>

>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>

>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I get

>>>> some

>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

>>>> example,

>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>>> latest:

>>>>

>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>> offerings

>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>> hearing

>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre attending

>>>> ..."

>>>>

>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters? I

>>>> tried

>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial

>>>> Black

>>>> and

>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>> differences

>>>> but

>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they might

>>>> be

>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or changed

>>>> any

>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>

>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for

>>>> WinXP.

>

October 18, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted in my

original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same garbled

apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source. Also if

I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

corruption.

Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not going

to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it would

happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must have

changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

--

Pete B

"Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all the

> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view them

> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the last

> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>

> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any one

> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since I

> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security service

> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific to

> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other software I

> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>

> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored right

> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until recently,

> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those clients as

> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server software

> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is something

> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system (which is

> my mosty likely suspect).

>

> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the forums

> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by email,

> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when they

> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere near

> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something other

> than my PC itself.

>

> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of recent

> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>

> --

> Pete B

>

> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period. There's

>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always send

>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>

>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>> concerned.

>>

>> Pete B wrote:

>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented to

>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I would

>>> still

>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started happening

>>> and

>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever happened

>>> until

>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly they

>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>

>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>

>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I get

>>>>> some

>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

>>>>> example,

>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>>>> latest:

>>>>>

>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>> offerings

>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>>> hearing

>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>> attending

>>>>> ..."

>>>>>

>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters? I

>>>>> tried

>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial

>>>>> Black

>>>>> and

>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>> differences

>>>>> but

>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they might

>>>>> be

>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>> changed

>>>>> any

>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>

>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for

>>>>> WinXP.

>>

>

October 18, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in View |

Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in plain

text" <= option DISABLED.

Pete B wrote:

> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted in

> my

> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

> garbled

> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source. Also

> if

> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

> corruption.

>

> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not

> going

> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it would

> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must have

> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>

> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all the

>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view

>> them

>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the last

>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>

>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any one

>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since I

>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>> service

>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

>> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific to

>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other software

>> I

>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>

>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored right

>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until recently,

>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those clients as

>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server software

>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is something

>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system (which

>> is

>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>

>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the forums

>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by email,

>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when they

>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere near

>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something other

>> than my PC itself.

>>

>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of recent

>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>

>> --

>> Pete B

>>

>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>> There's

>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always

>>> send

>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>>

>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>> concerned.

>>>

>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented to

>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I would

>>>> still

>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started happening

>>>> and

>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever happened

>>>> until

>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly

>>>> they

>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>

>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>

>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I get

>>>>>> some

>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

>>>>>> example,

>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>

>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>> attending

>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>

>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters?

>>>>>> I

>>>>>> tried

>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial

>>>>>> Black

>>>>>> and

>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>> differences

>>>>>> but

>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they might

>>>>>> be

>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>> changed

>>>>>> any

>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>

>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for

>>>>>> WinXP.

October 18, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

I did just what you suggest before I saw your post, and I found that, in the

case of this particular message, I could get it to appear normal (rid of

garbled characters) by changing the OEx Read font options to US-Ascii, and

with the message open, using the OEx View/Encoding setting of Unicode UTF-8.

With that adjustment, the message looked OK although the font was Arial when

displayed rather than my setting Arial Black.

Didn't seem to affect the other messages when I viewed them, but I went back

to Western Euro default/US Ascii as my encoding settings.

I seem to have about a gazillion fonts on my HDD in Ctl Panel, and I browsed

but do not understand the CP Regional and Language options settings. Is

there any MSKB info or other about these settings? Help file doesn't :=).

Does the encoding affect the message when you download it, or only when you

view it?

BTW thanks for your attention to this. At least I have a bit better handle

on this.

--

Pete B

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:uTe$FaVMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in View |

> Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in plain

> text" <= option DISABLED.

>

> Pete B wrote:

>> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted in

>> my

>> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

>> garbled

>> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source. Also

>> if

>> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

>> corruption.

>>

>> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not

>> going

>> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it would

>> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must have

>> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>>

>> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

>> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all

>>> the

>>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

>>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view

>>> them

>>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the last

>>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>>

>>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any

>>> one

>>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since I

>>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>>> service

>>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

>>> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific to

>>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other software

>>> I

>>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>>

>>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored

>>> right

>>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until

>>> recently,

>>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

>>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

>>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those clients

>>> as

>>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server software

>>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is something

>>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system (which

>>> is

>>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>>

>>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the

>>> forums

>>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by

>>> email,

>>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when they

>>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere near

>>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something other

>>> than my PC itself.

>>>

>>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

>>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of recent

>>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>>

>>> --

>>> Pete B

>>>

>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>>> There's

>>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always

>>>> send

>>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>>>

>>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>>> concerned.

>>>>

>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented to

>>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I would

>>>>> still

>>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started happening

>>>>> and

>>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever happened

>>>>> until

>>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly

>>>>> they

>>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>>

>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>>

>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I

>>>>>>> get

>>>>>>> some

>>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

>>>>>>> example,

>>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>>> attending

>>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters?

>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>> tried

>>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial

>>>>>>> Black

>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>>> differences

>>>>>>> but

>>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they

>>>>>>> might

>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>>> changed

>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3 for

>>>>>>> WinXP.

>

October 18, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

Encoding (not fonts) controls everything in an email message.

When reading the message in OE, the message's format (i.e., Plain Text;

RichText; HTML) plays a role, too...as does proprietary formatting (e.g.,

AOL).

Basically, OE simply does not play nicely with all encoding and

formatting...and it was never designed to do so. But this is all water

under the bridge now: All development on OE (and Windows Mail in Vista, for

that matter) stopped in June 2006...yes, while Vista was still in beta.

Pete B wrote:

> I did just what you suggest before I saw your post, and I found that, in

> the

> case of this particular message, I could get it to appear normal (rid of

> garbled characters) by changing the OEx Read font options to US-Ascii, and

> with the message open, using the OEx View/Encoding setting of Unicode

> UTF-8.

> With that adjustment, the message looked OK although the font was Arial

> when

> displayed rather than my setting Arial Black.

>

> Didn't seem to affect the other messages when I viewed them, but I went

> back

> to Western Euro default/US Ascii as my encoding settings.

>

> I seem to have about a gazillion fonts on my HDD in Ctl Panel, and I

> browsed

> but do not understand the CP Regional and Language options settings. Is

> there any MSKB info or other about these settings? Help file doesn't

> :=).

> Does the encoding affect the message when you download it, or only when

> you

> view it?

>

> BTW thanks for your attention to this. At least I have a bit better

> handle

> on this.

>

> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

> news:uTe$FaVMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in View

>> |

>> Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in plain

>> text" <= option DISABLED.

>>

>> Pete B wrote:

>>> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted in

>>> my

>>> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

>>> garbled

>>> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source. Also

>>> if

>>> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

>>> corruption.

>>>

>>> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not

>>> going

>>> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it

>>> would

>>> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must have

>>> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>>>

>>> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

>>> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all

>>>> the

>>>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

>>>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view

>>>> them

>>>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the

>>>> last

>>>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>>>

>>>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any

>>>> one

>>>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since I

>>>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>>>> service

>>>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

>>>> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific to

>>>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other

>>>> software

>>>> I

>>>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>>>

>>>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored

>>>> right

>>>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until

>>>> recently,

>>>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

>>>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

>>>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those clients

>>>> as

>>>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server software

>>>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is something

>>>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system (which

>>>> is

>>>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>>>

>>>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the

>>>> forums

>>>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by

>>>> email,

>>>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when they

>>>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere

>>>> near

>>>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something other

>>>> than my PC itself.

>>>>

>>>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

>>>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of

>>>> recent

>>>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> Pete B

>>>>

>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>>>> There's

>>>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always

>>>>> send

>>>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>>>>

>>>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>>>> concerned.

>>>>>

>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented to

>>>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I would

>>>>>> still

>>>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started

>>>>>> happening

>>>>>> and

>>>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever

>>>>>> happened

>>>>>> until

>>>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly

>>>>>> they

>>>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>>>

>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I

>>>>>>>> get

>>>>>>>> some

>>>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive. For

>>>>>>>> example,

>>>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>>>> attending

>>>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text characters?

>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>> tried

>>>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial

>>>>>>>> Black

>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>>>> differences

>>>>>>>> but

>>>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they

>>>>>>>> might

>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>>>> changed

>>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3

>>>>>>>> for

>>>>>>>> WinXP.

October 18, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

Really! June 2006, whattya know....

Well, thanks, I think this has gone as far as we can go.

--

Pete B

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:O2RHpiWMJHA.5232@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Encoding (not fonts) controls everything in an email message.

>

> When reading the message in OE, the message's format (i.e., Plain Text;

> RichText; HTML) plays a role, too...as does proprietary formatting (e.g.,

> AOL).

>

> Basically, OE simply does not play nicely with all encoding and

> formatting...and it was never designed to do so. But this is all water

> under the bridge now: All development on OE (and Windows Mail in Vista,

> for that matter) stopped in June 2006...yes, while Vista was still in

> beta.

>

> Pete B wrote:

>> I did just what you suggest before I saw your post, and I found that, in

>> the

>> case of this particular message, I could get it to appear normal (rid of

>> garbled characters) by changing the OEx Read font options to US-Ascii,

>> and

>> with the message open, using the OEx View/Encoding setting of Unicode

>> UTF-8.

>> With that adjustment, the message looked OK although the font was Arial

>> when

>> displayed rather than my setting Arial Black.

>>

>> Didn't seem to affect the other messages when I viewed them, but I went

>> back

>> to Western Euro default/US Ascii as my encoding settings.

>>

>> I seem to have about a gazillion fonts on my HDD in Ctl Panel, and I

>> browsed

>> but do not understand the CP Regional and Language options settings. Is

>> there any MSKB info or other about these settings? Help file doesn't

>> :=).

>> Does the encoding affect the message when you download it, or only when

>> you

>> view it?

>>

>> BTW thanks for your attention to this. At least I have a bit better

>> handle

>> on this.

>>

>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>> news:uTe$FaVMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>> My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in View

>>> |

>>> Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in plain

>>> text" <= option DISABLED.

>>>

>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted

>>>> in

>>>> my

>>>> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

>>>> garbled

>>>> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source.

>>>> Also

>>>> if

>>>> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

>>>> corruption.

>>>>

>>>> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not

>>>> going

>>>> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it

>>>> would

>>>> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must have

>>>> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>>>>

>>>> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

>>>> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all

>>>>> the

>>>>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

>>>>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view

>>>>> them

>>>>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the

>>>>> last

>>>>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>>>>

>>>>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any

>>>>> one

>>>>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since I

>>>>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>>>>> service

>>>>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

>>>>> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific

>>>>> to

>>>>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other

>>>>> software

>>>>> I

>>>>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>>>>

>>>>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored

>>>>> right

>>>>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until

>>>>> recently,

>>>>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

>>>>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

>>>>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those clients

>>>>> as

>>>>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server

>>>>> software

>>>>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is something

>>>>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system

>>>>> (which

>>>>> is

>>>>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>>>>

>>>>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the

>>>>> forums

>>>>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by

>>>>> email,

>>>>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when they

>>>>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere

>>>>> near

>>>>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something

>>>>> other

>>>>> than my PC itself.

>>>>>

>>>>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

>>>>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of

>>>>> recent

>>>>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>>>>

>>>>> --

>>>>> Pete B

>>>>>

>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>>>>> There's

>>>>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always

>>>>>> send

>>>>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>>>>> concerned.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented

>>>>>>> to

>>>>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I

>>>>>>> would

>>>>>>> still

>>>>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started

>>>>>>> happening

>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever

>>>>>>> happened

>>>>>>> until

>>>>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly

>>>>>>> they

>>>>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I

>>>>>>>>> get

>>>>>>>>> some

>>>>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive.

>>>>>>>>> For

>>>>>>>>> example,

>>>>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>>>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>>>>> attending

>>>>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text

>>>>>>>>> characters?

>>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>>> tried

>>>>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial

>>>>>>>>> Black

>>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>>>>> differences

>>>>>>>>> but

>>>>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they

>>>>>>>>> might

>>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>>>>> changed

>>>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3

>>>>>>>>> for

>>>>>>>>> WinXP.

>

October 19, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found this

MSKB article about the problem:

Article ID : 244441

Last Review : January 25, 2007

Revision : 2.1

OLEXP: Messages Received in Outlook Express Have Different Characters in the

Text

View products that this article applies to.

Article ID : 244441

Last Review : January 25, 2007

Revision : 2.1

This article was previously published under Q244441

For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express and

Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to view

the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

257824 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/) OL2000: Differences

Between Outlook and Outlook Express

SYMPTOMS

When you receive e-mail messages in Outlook Express, the message may contain

different characters in place of extended ASCII characters as noted in the

following example: • An exclamation point (!) may appear as +ACE-

• A quotation mark (") may appear as +ACI-

• An ampersand character (&) may appear as +ACY-

• The @ character may appear as +AEA-

• The # character may appear as +ACM-

Also, the e-mail messages may appear to contain these characters along with

Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) coding for HTML e-mail messages.

Back to the top

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if Outlook Express is configured to read e-mail

messages in the default encoding format regardless of the actual encoding

format specified in the header of the e-mail message.

Back to the top

RESOLUTION

To resolve this behavior, disable the "Use default encoding for all incoming

messages" feature: 1. In Outlook Express, click Options on the Tools menu.

2. Click the Read tab, and then click International Settings.

3. Click to clear the Use default encoding for all incoming messages

check box, click OK, and then click OK.

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

This problem typically happens when you receive a message in the UTF-7

encoding format and Outlook Express is set to use the default Western ISO

encoding format for all incoming messages. The symptoms of this problem may

be slightly different depending on the incoming message format type.

******************

--

Pete B

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:O2RHpiWMJHA.5232@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Encoding (not fonts) controls everything in an email message.

>

> When reading the message in OE, the message's format (i.e., Plain Text;

> RichText; HTML) plays a role, too...as does proprietary formatting (e.g.,

> AOL).

>

> Basically, OE simply does not play nicely with all encoding and

> formatting...and it was never designed to do so. But this is all water

> under the bridge now: All development on OE (and Windows Mail in Vista,

> for

> that matter) stopped in June 2006...yes, while Vista was still in beta.

>

> Pete B wrote:

>> I did just what you suggest before I saw your post, and I found that, in

>> the

>> case of this particular message, I could get it to appear normal (rid of

>> garbled characters) by changing the OEx Read font options to US-Ascii,

>> and

>> with the message open, using the OEx View/Encoding setting of Unicode

>> UTF-8.

>> With that adjustment, the message looked OK although the font was Arial

>> when

>> displayed rather than my setting Arial Black.

>>

>> Didn't seem to affect the other messages when I viewed them, but I went

>> back

>> to Western Euro default/US Ascii as my encoding settings.

>>

>> I seem to have about a gazillion fonts on my HDD in Ctl Panel, and I

>> browsed

>> but do not understand the CP Regional and Language options settings. Is

>> there any MSKB info or other about these settings? Help file doesn't

>> :=).

>> Does the encoding affect the message when you download it, or only when

>> you

>> view it?

>>

>> BTW thanks for your attention to this. At least I have a bit better

>> handle

>> on this.

>>

>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>> news:uTe$FaVMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>> My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in View

>>> |

>>> Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in plain

>>> text" <= option DISABLED.

>>>

>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted

>>>> in

>>>> my

>>>> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

>>>> garbled

>>>> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source.

>>>> Also

>>>> if

>>>> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

>>>> corruption.

>>>>

>>>> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not

>>>> going

>>>> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it

>>>> would

>>>> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must have

>>>> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>>>>

>>>> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

>>>> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all

>>>>> the

>>>>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

>>>>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view

>>>>> them

>>>>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the

>>>>> last

>>>>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>>>>

>>>>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any

>>>>> one

>>>>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since I

>>>>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>>>>> service

>>>>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

>>>>> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific

>>>>> to

>>>>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other

>>>>> software

>>>>> I

>>>>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>>>>

>>>>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored

>>>>> right

>>>>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until

>>>>> recently,

>>>>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

>>>>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

>>>>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those clients

>>>>> as

>>>>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server

>>>>> software

>>>>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is something

>>>>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system

>>>>> (which

>>>>> is

>>>>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>>>>

>>>>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the

>>>>> forums

>>>>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by

>>>>> email,

>>>>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when they

>>>>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere

>>>>> near

>>>>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something

>>>>> other

>>>>> than my PC itself.

>>>>>

>>>>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

>>>>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of

>>>>> recent

>>>>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>>>>

>>>>> --

>>>>> Pete B

>>>>>

>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>>>>> There's

>>>>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always

>>>>>> send

>>>>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>>>>> concerned.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented

>>>>>>> to

>>>>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I

>>>>>>> would

>>>>>>> still

>>>>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started

>>>>>>> happening

>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever

>>>>>>> happened

>>>>>>> until

>>>>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly

>>>>>>> they

>>>>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I

>>>>>>>>> get

>>>>>>>>> some

>>>>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive.

>>>>>>>>> For

>>>>>>>>> example,

>>>>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from the

>>>>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>>>>> attending

>>>>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text

>>>>>>>>> characters?

>>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>>> tried

>>>>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use (Arial

>>>>>>>>> Black

>>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>>>>> differences

>>>>>>>>> but

>>>>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they

>>>>>>>>> might

>>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>>>>> changed

>>>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3

>>>>>>>>> for

>>>>>>>>> WinXP.

>

October 19, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

Is "Use default encoding for all incoming messages" enabled? IIRC it isn't

enabled by default, Pete, and I would not recommend enabling it. (Like so

many other OE KB articles, KB244441 applies to OE6 despite what the APPLIES

TO section says.)

Pete B wrote:

> I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found

> this

> MSKB article about the problem:

> Article ID : 244441

> Last Review : January 25, 2007

> Revision : 2.1

> <snip>

>> Encoding (not fonts) controls everything in an email message.

>>

>> When reading the message in OE, the message's format (i.e., Plain Text;

>> RichText; HTML) plays a role, too...as does proprietary formatting (e.g.,

>> AOL).

>>

>> Basically, OE simply does not play nicely with all encoding and

>> formatting...and it was never designed to do so. But this is all water

>> under the bridge now: All development on OE (and Windows Mail in Vista,

>> for

>> that matter) stopped in June 2006...yes, while Vista was still in beta.

>>

>> Pete B wrote:

>>> I did just what you suggest before I saw your post, and I found that, in

>>> the

>>> case of this particular message, I could get it to appear normal (rid of

>>> garbled characters) by changing the OEx Read font options to US-Ascii,

>>> and

>>> with the message open, using the OEx View/Encoding setting of Unicode

>>> UTF-8.

>>> With that adjustment, the message looked OK although the font was Arial

>>> when

>>> displayed rather than my setting Arial Black.

>>>

>>> Didn't seem to affect the other messages when I viewed them, but I went

>>> back

>>> to Western Euro default/US Ascii as my encoding settings.

>>>

>>> I seem to have about a gazillion fonts on my HDD in Ctl Panel, and I

>>> browsed

>>> but do not understand the CP Regional and Language options settings. Is

>>> there any MSKB info or other about these settings? Help file doesn't

>>> :=).

>>> Does the encoding affect the message when you download it, or only when

>>> you

>>> view it?

>>>

>>> BTW thanks for your attention to this. At least I have a bit better

>>> handle

>>> on this.

>>>

>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>> news:uTe$FaVMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>> My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in

>>>> View

>>>>>

>>>> Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in

>>>> plain

>>>> text" <= option DISABLED.

>>>>

>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted

>>>>> in

>>>>> my

>>>>> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

>>>>> garbled

>>>>> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source.

>>>>> Also

>>>>> if

>>>>> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

>>>>> corruption.

>>>>>

>>>>> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not

>>>>> going

>>>>> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it

>>>>> would

>>>>> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must

>>>>> have

>>>>> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>>>>>

>>>>> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

>>>>> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then all

>>>>>> the

>>>>>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

>>>>>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and view

>>>>>> them

>>>>>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the

>>>>>> last

>>>>>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to any

>>>>>> one

>>>>>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since

>>>>>> I

>>>>>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>>>>>> service

>>>>>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

>>>>>> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific

>>>>>> to

>>>>>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other

>>>>>> software

>>>>>> I

>>>>>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored

>>>>>> right

>>>>>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until

>>>>>> recently,

>>>>>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

>>>>>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

>>>>>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those

>>>>>> clients

>>>>>> as

>>>>>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server

>>>>>> software

>>>>>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is

>>>>>> something

>>>>>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system

>>>>>> (which

>>>>>> is

>>>>>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>>>>>

>>>>>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the

>>>>>> forums

>>>>>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by

>>>>>> email,

>>>>>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when

>>>>>> they

>>>>>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere

>>>>>> near

>>>>>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something

>>>>>> other

>>>>>> than my PC itself.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

>>>>>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of

>>>>>> recent

>>>>>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> --

>>>>>> Pete B

>>>>>>

>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>>>>>> There's

>>>>>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to always

>>>>>>> send

>>>>>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>>>>>> concerned.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented

>>>>>>>> to

>>>>>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I

>>>>>>>> would

>>>>>>>> still

>>>>>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started

>>>>>>>> happening

>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever

>>>>>>>> happened

>>>>>>>> until

>>>>>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but mostly

>>>>>>>> they

>>>>>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages, I

>>>>>>>>>> get

>>>>>>>>>> some

>>>>>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive.

>>>>>>>>>> For

>>>>>>>>>> example,

>>>>>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from

>>>>>>>>>> the

>>>>>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll be

>>>>>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>>>>>> attending

>>>>>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text

>>>>>>>>>> characters?

>>>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>>>> tried

>>>>>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use

>>>>>>>>>> (Arial

>>>>>>>>>> Black

>>>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>>>>>> differences

>>>>>>>>>> but

>>>>>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they

>>>>>>>>>> might

>>>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>>>>>> changed

>>>>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3

>>>>>>>>>> for

>>>>>>>>>> WinXP.

October 19, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:38:55 -0500, "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net>

wrote:

>I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found this

>MSKB article about the problem:

> Article ID : 244441

> Last Review : January 25, 2007

> Revision : 2.1

>

>OLEXP: Messages Received in Outlook Express Have Different Characters in the

>Text

>View products that this article applies to.

> Article ID : 244441

> Last Review : January 25, 2007

> Revision : 2.1

>

>This article was previously published under Q244441

>For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express and

>Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to view

>the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

>257824 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/) OL2000: Differences

>Between Outlook and Outlook Express

>SYMPTOMS

>When you receive e-mail messages in Outlook Express, the message may contain

>different characters in place of extended ASCII characters as noted in the

>following example: • An exclamation point (!) may appear as +ACE-

> • A quotation mark (") may appear as +ACI-

> • An ampersand character (&) may appear as +ACY-

> • The @ character may appear as +AEA-

> • The # character may appear as +ACM-

>Also, the e-mail messages may appear to contain these characters along with

>Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) coding for HTML e-mail messages.

>Back to the top

>

>CAUSE

>This behavior can occur if Outlook Express is configured to read e-mail

>messages in the default encoding format regardless of the actual encoding

>format specified in the header of the e-mail message.

>Back to the top

>

>RESOLUTION

>To resolve this behavior, disable the "Use default encoding for all incoming

>messages" feature: 1. In Outlook Express, click Options on the Tools menu.

> 2. Click the Read tab, and then click International Settings.

> 3. Click to clear the Use default encoding for all incoming messages

>check box, click OK, and then click OK.

>

>Back to the top

>

>MORE INFORMATION

>This problem typically happens when you receive a message in the UTF-7

>encoding format and Outlook Express is set to use the default Western ISO

>encoding format for all incoming messages. The symptoms of this problem may

>be slightly different depending on the incoming message format type.

>

>******************

Don't post binaries in a text newsgroup. I didn't want your stupid

and crappy picture on my hard drive.

October 19, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

> Don't post binaries in a text newsgroup. I didn't want your stupid

> and crappy picture on my hard drive.

Its a copy of a MSKB article that is pertinent to the discussion. If you

have a problem with stupid and crappy MSKB articles, don't read them and

delete it from your HDD.

I don't need your rude attitude, and nobody else does either.

--

Pete B

"EncinoMan" <none@nobody.net> wrote in message

news:quenf41uc7eh3r46esbj2bvumldltkcsqp@4ax.com...

> On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:38:55 -0500, "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net>

> wrote:

>

>>I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found

>>this

>>MSKB article about the problem:

>> Article ID : 244441

>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>> Revision : 2.1

>>

>>OLEXP: Messages Received in Outlook Express Have Different Characters in

>>the

>>Text

>>View products that this article applies to.

>> Article ID : 244441

>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>> Revision : 2.1

>>

>>This article was previously published under Q244441

>>For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express

>>and

>>Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to

>>view

>>the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

>>257824 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/) OL2000: Differences

>>Between Outlook and Outlook Express

>>SYMPTOMS

>>When you receive e-mail messages in Outlook Express, the message may

>>contain

>>different characters in place of extended ASCII characters as noted in the

>>following example: . An exclamation point (!) may appear as +ACE-

>> . A quotation mark (") may appear as +ACI-

>> . An ampersand character (&) may appear as +ACY-

>> . The @ character may appear as +AEA-

>> . The # character may appear as +ACM-

>>Also, the e-mail messages may appear to contain these characters along

>>with

>>Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) coding for HTML e-mail messages.

>>Back to the top

>>

>>CAUSE

>>This behavior can occur if Outlook Express is configured to read e-mail

>>messages in the default encoding format regardless of the actual encoding

>>format specified in the header of the e-mail message.

>>Back to the top

>>

>>RESOLUTION

>>To resolve this behavior, disable the "Use default encoding for all

>>incoming

>>messages" feature: 1. In Outlook Express, click Options on the Tools menu.

>> 2. Click the Read tab, and then click International Settings.

>> 3. Click to clear the Use default encoding for all incoming messages

>>check box, click OK, and then click OK.

>>

>>Back to the top

>>

>>MORE INFORMATION

>>This problem typically happens when you receive a message in the UTF-7

>>encoding format and Outlook Express is set to use the default Western ISO

>>encoding format for all incoming messages. The symptoms of this problem

>>may

>>be slightly different depending on the incoming message format type.

>>

>>******************

>

> Don't post binaries in a text newsgroup. I didn't want your stupid

> and crappy picture on my hard drive.

October 19, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

Yes, it was enabled, so I disabled it. I have no idea when or how it got

set, it may have been there since I bought the PC which had Windows

installed. I had seen it before from time to time, but as I mentioned, the

MS Help system does not really give any info on what this encoding stuff is

all about, nor does it tell you what the options mean in setting it, so I

had always just left it be. I found this particular article and several

other helpful ones at an outside OEx Tips/Help/Utilities website.

--

Pete B

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:OfugdWjMJHA.456@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Is "Use default encoding for all incoming messages" enabled? IIRC it

> isn't enabled by default, Pete, and I would not recommend enabling it.

> (Like so many other OE KB articles, KB244441 applies to OE6 despite what

> the APPLIES TO section says.)

>

> Pete B wrote:

>> I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found

>> this

>> MSKB article about the problem:

>> Article ID : 244441

>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>> Revision : 2.1

>> <snip>

>>> Encoding (not fonts) controls everything in an email message.

>>>

>>> When reading the message in OE, the message's format (i.e., Plain Text;

>>> RichText; HTML) plays a role, too...as does proprietary formatting

>>> (e.g.,

>>> AOL).

>>>

>>> Basically, OE simply does not play nicely with all encoding and

>>> formatting...and it was never designed to do so. But this is all water

>>> under the bridge now: All development on OE (and Windows Mail in Vista,

>>> for

>>> that matter) stopped in June 2006...yes, while Vista was still in beta.

>>>

>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>> I did just what you suggest before I saw your post, and I found that,

>>>> in

>>>> the

>>>> case of this particular message, I could get it to appear normal (rid

>>>> of

>>>> garbled characters) by changing the OEx Read font options to US-Ascii,

>>>> and

>>>> with the message open, using the OEx View/Encoding setting of Unicode

>>>> UTF-8.

>>>> With that adjustment, the message looked OK although the font was Arial

>>>> when

>>>> displayed rather than my setting Arial Black.

>>>>

>>>> Didn't seem to affect the other messages when I viewed them, but I went

>>>> back

>>>> to Western Euro default/US Ascii as my encoding settings.

>>>>

>>>> I seem to have about a gazillion fonts on my HDD in Ctl Panel, and I

>>>> browsed

>>>> but do not understand the CP Regional and Language options settings.

>>>> Is

>>>> there any MSKB info or other about these settings? Help file doesn't

>>>> :=).

>>>> Does the encoding affect the message when you download it, or only when

>>>> you

>>>> view it?

>>>>

>>>> BTW thanks for your attention to this. At least I have a bit better

>>>> handle

>>>> on this.

>>>>

>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>> news:uTe$FaVMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>> My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in

>>>>> View

>>>>>>

>>>>> Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in

>>>>> plain

>>>>> text" <= option DISABLED.

>>>>>

>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I quoted

>>>>>> in

>>>>>> my

>>>>>> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

>>>>>> garbled

>>>>>> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source.

>>>>>> Also

>>>>>> if

>>>>>> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

>>>>>> corruption.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is not

>>>>>> going

>>>>>> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it

>>>>>> would

>>>>>> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must

>>>>>> have

>>>>>> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

>>>>>> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then

>>>>>>> all

>>>>>>> the

>>>>>>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would have

>>>>>>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and

>>>>>>> view

>>>>>>> them

>>>>>>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the

>>>>>>> last

>>>>>>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to

>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>> one

>>>>>>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time since

>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>>>>>>> service

>>>>>>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done quite

>>>>>>> often, that took place around that time. This is something specific

>>>>>>> to

>>>>>>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other

>>>>>>> software

>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored

>>>>>>> right

>>>>>>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until

>>>>>>> recently,

>>>>>>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of email

>>>>>>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox and

>>>>>>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those

>>>>>>> clients

>>>>>>> as

>>>>>>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server

>>>>>>> software

>>>>>>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is

>>>>>>> something

>>>>>>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system

>>>>>>> (which

>>>>>>> is

>>>>>>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the

>>>>>>> forums

>>>>>>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by

>>>>>>> email,

>>>>>>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when

>>>>>>> they

>>>>>>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere

>>>>>>> near

>>>>>>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something

>>>>>>> other

>>>>>>> than my PC itself.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that does

>>>>>>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of

>>>>>>> recent

>>>>>>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> --

>>>>>>> Pete B

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>>>>>>> There's

>>>>>>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to

>>>>>>>> always

>>>>>>>> send

>>>>>>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML) formatting.

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>>>>>>> concerned.

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions presented

>>>>>>>>> to

>>>>>>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I

>>>>>>>>> would

>>>>>>>>> still

>>>>>>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started

>>>>>>>>> happening

>>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever

>>>>>>>>> happened

>>>>>>>>> until

>>>>>>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but

>>>>>>>>> mostly

>>>>>>>>> they

>>>>>>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages,

>>>>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>>>>> get

>>>>>>>>>>> some

>>>>>>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive.

>>>>>>>>>>> For

>>>>>>>>>>> example,

>>>>>>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from

>>>>>>>>>>> the

>>>>>>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll

>>>>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>>>>>>> attending

>>>>>>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text

>>>>>>>>>>> characters?

>>>>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>>>>> tried

>>>>>>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use

>>>>>>>>>>> (Arial

>>>>>>>>>>> Black

>>>>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>>>>>>> differences

>>>>>>>>>>> but

>>>>>>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they

>>>>>>>>>>> might

>>>>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>>>>>>> changed

>>>>>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed SP3

>>>>>>>>>>> for

>>>>>>>>>>> WinXP.

>

October 20, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

> "Don't post binaries in a text newsgroup. I didn't want

> your stupid and crappy picture on my hard drive.

I don't want your stupid and crappy and useless comments

on my hard drive, "EncinoMan". Get lost!

"EncinoMan" <none@nobody.net> wrote in message news:quenf41uc7eh3r46esbj2bvumldltkcsqp@4ax.com...

> On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:38:55 -0500, "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net>

> wrote:

>

>>I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found this

>>MSKB article about the problem:

>> Article ID : 244441

>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>> Revision : 2.1

>>

>>OLEXP: Messages Received in Outlook Express Have Different Characters in the

>>Text

>>View products that this article applies to.

>> Article ID : 244441

>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>> Revision : 2.1

>>

>>This article was previously published under Q244441

>>For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express and

>>Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to view

>>the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

>>257824 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/) OL2000: Differences

>>Between Outlook and Outlook Express

>>SYMPTOMS

>>When you receive e-mail messages in Outlook Express, the message may contain

>>different characters in place of extended ASCII characters as noted in the

>>following example: . An exclamation point (!) may appear as +ACE-

>> . A quotation mark (") may appear as +ACI-

>> . An ampersand character (&) may appear as +ACY-

>> . The @ character may appear as +AEA-

>> . The # character may appear as +ACM-

>>Also, the e-mail messages may appear to contain these characters along with

>>Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) coding for HTML e-mail messages.

>>Back to the top

>>

>>CAUSE

>>This behavior can occur if Outlook Express is configured to read e-mail

>>messages in the default encoding format regardless of the actual encoding

>>format specified in the header of the e-mail message.

>>Back to the top

>>

>>RESOLUTION

>>To resolve this behavior, disable the "Use default encoding for all incoming

>>messages" feature: 1. In Outlook Express, click Options on the Tools menu.

>> 2. Click the Read tab, and then click International Settings.

>> 3. Click to clear the Use default encoding for all incoming messages

>>check box, click OK, and then click OK.

>>

>>Back to the top

>>

>>MORE INFORMATION

>>This problem typically happens when you receive a message in the UTF-7

>>encoding format and Outlook Express is set to use the default Western ISO

>>encoding format for all incoming messages. The symptoms of this problem may

>>be slightly different depending on the incoming message format type.

>>

>>******************

>

> Don't post binaries in a text newsgroup. I didn't want your stupid

> and crappy picture on my hard drive.

October 20, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

"EncinoMan" <none@nobody.net> wrote in message

news:quenf41uc7eh3r46esbj2bvumldltkcsqp@4ax.com...

> On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:38:55 -0500, "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net>

> wrote:

>

>>I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found

>>this

>>MSKB article about the problem:

>> Article ID : 244441

>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>> Revision : 2.1

>>

>>OLEXP: Messages Received in Outlook Express Have Different Characters in

>>the

>>Text

>>View products that this article applies to.

>> Article ID : 244441

>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>> Revision : 2.1

>>

>>This article was previously published under Q244441

>>For information about the differences between Microsoft Outlook Express

>>and

>>Microsoft Outlook e-mail clients, click the following article number to

>>view

>>the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

>>257824 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/) OL2000: Differences

>>Between Outlook and Outlook Express

>>SYMPTOMS

>>When you receive e-mail messages in Outlook Express, the message may

>>contain

>>different characters in place of extended ASCII characters as noted in the

>>following example: . An exclamation point (!) may appear as +ACE-

>> . A quotation mark (") may appear as +ACI-

>> . An ampersand character (&) may appear as +ACY-

>> . The @ character may appear as +AEA-

>> . The # character may appear as +ACM-

>>Also, the e-mail messages may appear to contain these characters along

>>with

>>Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) coding for HTML e-mail messages.

>>Back to the top

>>

>>CAUSE

>>This behavior can occur if Outlook Express is configured to read e-mail

>>messages in the default encoding format regardless of the actual encoding

>>format specified in the header of the e-mail message.

>>Back to the top

>>

>>RESOLUTION

>>To resolve this behavior, disable the "Use default encoding for all

>>incoming

>>messages" feature: 1. In Outlook Express, click Options on the Tools menu.

>> 2. Click the Read tab, and then click International Settings.

>> 3. Click to clear the Use default encoding for all incoming messages

>>check box, click OK, and then click OK.

>>

>>Back to the top

>>

>>MORE INFORMATION

>>This problem typically happens when you receive a message in the UTF-7

>>encoding format and Outlook Express is set to use the default Western ISO

>>encoding format for all incoming messages. The symptoms of this problem

>>may

>>be slightly different depending on the incoming message format type.

>>

>>******************

>

> Don't post binaries in a text newsgroup. I didn't want your stupid

> and crappy picture on my hard drive.

They wouldn't be on your hard drive if you weren't stupid enough to download

them.

October 20, 2008

Re: Strange Characters When Viewing Outlook Express messages

http://www.insideoe.com is considered the OE Bible in my circle, Pete.

Pete B wrote:

> Yes, it was enabled, so I disabled it. I have no idea when or how it got

> set, it may have been there since I bought the PC which had Windows

> installed. I had seen it before from time to time, but as I mentioned,

> the

> MS Help system does not really give any info on what this encoding stuff

> is

> all about, nor does it tell you what the options mean in setting it, so I

> had always just left it be. I found this particular article and several

> other helpful ones at an outside OEx Tips/Help/Utilities website.

>

> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

> news:OfugdWjMJHA.456@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>> Is "Use default encoding for all incoming messages" enabled? IIRC it

>> isn't enabled by default, Pete, and I would not recommend enabling it.

>> (Like so many other OE KB articles, KB244441 applies to OE6 despite what

>> the APPLIES TO section says.)

>>

>> Pete B wrote:

>>> I don't know if this applies to the current version of OEx, but I found

>>> this

>>> MSKB article about the problem:

>>> Article ID : 244441

>>> Last Review : January 25, 2007

>>> Revision : 2.1

>>> <snip>

>>>> Encoding (not fonts) controls everything in an email message.

>>>>

>>>> When reading the message in OE, the message's format (i.e., Plain Text;

>>>> RichText; HTML) plays a role, too...as does proprietary formatting

>>>> (e.g.,

>>>> AOL).

>>>>

>>>> Basically, OE simply does not play nicely with all encoding and

>>>> formatting...and it was never designed to do so. But this is all water

>>>> under the bridge now: All development on OE (and Windows Mail in Vista,

>>>> for

>>>> that matter) stopped in June 2006...yes, while Vista was still in beta.

>>>>

>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>> I did just what you suggest before I saw your post, and I found that,

>>>>> in

>>>>> the

>>>>> case of this particular message, I could get it to appear normal (rid

>>>>> of

>>>>> garbled characters) by changing the OEx Read font options to US-Ascii,

>>>>> and

>>>>> with the message open, using the OEx View/Encoding setting of Unicode

>>>>> UTF-8.

>>>>> With that adjustment, the message looked OK although the font was

>>>>> Arial

>>>>> when

>>>>> displayed rather than my setting Arial Black.

>>>>>

>>>>> Didn't seem to affect the other messages when I viewed them, but I

>>>>> went

>>>>> back

>>>>> to Western Euro default/US Ascii as my encoding settings.

>>>>>

>>>>> I seem to have about a gazillion fonts on my HDD in Ctl Panel, and I

>>>>> browsed

>>>>> but do not understand the CP Regional and Language options settings.

>>>>> Is

>>>>> there any MSKB info or other about these settings? Help file doesn't

>>>>> :=).

>>>>> Does the encoding affect the message when you download it, or only

>>>>> when

>>>>> you

>>>>> view it?

>>>>>

>>>>> BTW thanks for your attention to this. At least I have a bit better

>>>>> handle

>>>>> on this.

>>>>>

>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>> news:uTe$FaVMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>> My only other suggestion would be to invistigate your setting(s) in

>>>>>> View

>>>>>>>

>>>>>> Encoding when reading such a message => with "Read all messages in

>>>>>> plain

>>>>>> text" <= option DISABLED.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>> Strange. I opened the particular message from MS Tech which I

>>>>>>> quoted

>>>>>>> in

>>>>>>> my

>>>>>>> original post, and looked at the message source text, where the same

>>>>>>> garbled

>>>>>>> apostrophe characters are showing in the plain text of the source.

>>>>>>> Also

>>>>>>> if

>>>>>>> I copy and paste the message text into Notepad, it shows the same

>>>>>>> corruption.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> Maybe it is like you say, just a sender anomaly, but if so, it is

>>>>>>> not

>>>>>>> going

>>>>>>> to be cured by receiving massages as plain text. I am surprised it

>>>>>>> would

>>>>>>> happen to something like MS Technotes, though; that means MS must

>>>>>>> have

>>>>>>> changed something with whatever they use to produce the emails.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>> "Pete B" <petescastle@comcast.net> wrote in message

>>>>>>> news:%23pn1xfTMJHA.1304@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>> That is just not true. For just one thing, if it were true, then

>>>>>>>> all

>>>>>>>> the

>>>>>>>> technotes I received from MS in the past going back years would

>>>>>>>> have

>>>>>>>> exhibited this corruption, but they do not, even when I open and

>>>>>>>> view

>>>>>>>> them

>>>>>>>> now. If it were as you say, this would have been happening for the

>>>>>>>> last

>>>>>>>> seven or eight years since I installed WinXP in all my emails.

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> As I stated, this is a recent phenomenon and *it is not unique to

>>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>>> one

>>>>>>>> sender*, it only started (as near as I can recall) in the time

>>>>>>>> since

>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>> installed WinXP SP3, or perhaps since one of many auto MS security

>>>>>>>> service

>>>>>>>> updates or earlier WinXP or IE or OEx updates, which were done

>>>>>>>> quite

>>>>>>>> often, that took place around that time. This is something

>>>>>>>> specific

>>>>>>>> to

>>>>>>>> Outlook Express or IE, since I do not encounter it in any other

>>>>>>>> software

>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>> am running, MS or non-MS such as word-processors and otherwise.

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> I have quite an archive of past emails, going back years and stored

>>>>>>>> right

>>>>>>>> on this PC, none of which exhibit this strange corruption until

>>>>>>>> recently,

>>>>>>>> so it is either a sender-caused effect due to some new type of

>>>>>>>> email

>>>>>>>> client behavior that affects all email clients including Firefox

>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>> Mozilla and others because I have seen it in emails from those

>>>>>>>> clients

>>>>>>>> as

>>>>>>>> well as MS clients, or something caused by my ISP email server

>>>>>>>> software

>>>>>>>> somehow (which I admit would not surprise me), or else it is

>>>>>>>> something

>>>>>>>> that was caused by some change in Windows OEx or IE on my system

>>>>>>>> (which

>>>>>>>> is

>>>>>>>> my mosty likely suspect).

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> I also highly suspect it is something on my system, because in the

>>>>>>>> forums

>>>>>>>> where I have experienced this happening when I receive postings by

>>>>>>>> email,

>>>>>>>> I have asked other members if they observe the same behavior when

>>>>>>>> they

>>>>>>>> view forum messages, and nobody else has experienced it to anywhere

>>>>>>>> near

>>>>>>>> the degree I have encountered. So I really doubt it is something

>>>>>>>> other

>>>>>>>> than my PC itself.

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> I am going to try running without any IE addins and see if that

>>>>>>>> does

>>>>>>>> anything, since it will eliminate all the XML and other addins of

>>>>>>>> recent

>>>>>>>> times. Maybe that has something to do with it.

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> --

>>>>>>>> Pete B

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>>>> news:u48UlwKMJHA.3504@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>>> What you're seeing is caused by the Sender's formatting, period.

>>>>>>>>> There's

>>>>>>>>> nothing you can do about it except ask your correspondents to

>>>>>>>>> always

>>>>>>>>> send

>>>>>>>>> emails to you using Plain Text (not RichText; not HTML)

>>>>>>>>> formatting.

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> If they don't, their messages could be in Chinese as far as OE's

>>>>>>>>> concerned.

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>>>> Well, commented upon, not really answered. No solutions

>>>>>>>>>> presented

>>>>>>>>>> to

>>>>>>>>>> eliminate the problem, only explanations of probable causes. I

>>>>>>>>>> would

>>>>>>>>>> still

>>>>>>>>>> like to definitively and specifdically know why this started

>>>>>>>>>> happening

>>>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>>>> how to eliminate it from occurring, because it seldom if ever

>>>>>>>>>> happened

>>>>>>>>>> until

>>>>>>>>>> just recently. I appreciated all the answers I did get, but

>>>>>>>>>> mostly

>>>>>>>>>> they

>>>>>>>>>> could be summed up as "Live with it".

>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote in message

>>>>>>>>>> news:%234$XGq$LJHA.2164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>>>>> [Asked/Answered in OE6 newsgroup]

>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>> Pete B wrote:

>>>>>>>>>>>> Running WinXP Pro SP3. When I open or view most OEx6 messages,

>>>>>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>>>>>> get

>>>>>>>>>>>> some

>>>>>>>>>>>> rather strange font characters in my email messages I receive.

>>>>>>>>>>>> For

>>>>>>>>>>>> example,

>>>>>>>>>>>> I receive the MS Technet posts and here is a line of text from

>>>>>>>>>>>> the

>>>>>>>>>>>> latest:

>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>> "First up, weâ?Tll bring you up to speed on several of the new

>>>>>>>>>>>> offerings

>>>>>>>>>>>> around Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Client. Youâ?Tll

>>>>>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>>>>>> hearing

>>>>>>>>>>>> more about Windows 7 later this month, especially if youâ?Tre

>>>>>>>>>>>> attending

>>>>>>>>>>>> ..."

>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>> Does anyone know how to get rid of those odd "â?T" text

>>>>>>>>>>>> characters?

>>>>>>>>>>>> I

>>>>>>>>>>>> tried

>>>>>>>>>>>> changing to different encoding settings for the fonts I use

>>>>>>>>>>>> (Arial

>>>>>>>>>>>> Black

>>>>>>>>>>>> and

>>>>>>>>>>>> Lucinda Console, Windows Euro encoding), it made some slight

>>>>>>>>>>>> differences

>>>>>>>>>>>> but

>>>>>>>>>>>> I still had strange characters here and there. It appears they

>>>>>>>>>>>> might

>>>>>>>>>>>> be

>>>>>>>>>>>> related to punctuation marks or something. I have not added or

>>>>>>>>>>>> changed

>>>>>>>>>>>> any

>>>>>>>>>>>> fonts from what I have always had, so what is going on?

>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>> BTW I am not sure but this seemed to start after I installed

>>>>>>>>>>>> SP3

>>>>>>>>>>>> for

>>>>>>>>>>>> WinXP.

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