Many Mac Mail users who send and receive emails with their Windows counterparts using a mail client like Outlook or Microsoft Exchange will find a file called "winmail.dat" attached to those emails. You'll usually find that there is nothing available for opening a winmail.dat file on Mac OS X, or it contains gibberish and is unreadable.
We'll show you how Mac users can open winmail.dat files attached to emails. Also, we'll explain what a winmail.dat file is and where it comes from.
What is a winmail.dat file?
The term "winmail.dat" or "Microsoft Outlook Mail Attachment" describes the file that Mac users find attached to their email, in order to allow them to view an email sent from Windows in Mac OS X's default mail client. This file is usually found in the following location:
Windows users will find this file in their Windows "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming" folder, while Mac OS X users will find it in their "~/Library/Mail/" folder. The winmail. dat file can be viewed and opened by any user on a Mac, but only the person who sent the email will see its contents.
How to open winmail.dat files on Mac OS X?
You may have already noticed that we're not going to show you how to use an open-source program to open winmail.dat files on Mac OS X, since there are none that do this. What we will show you is how to open winmail.dat files using a native Mac application called Mail.
The easiest way to view the contents of a file like this is to simply open the Mail application and use it's Open Attachment feature. Simply choose File > Open... and select your winmail.dat file in the Finder, then press OK to open it.
You'll see a bunch of junk text on Mac OS X if you don't have the ability to open winmail.dat files, but this is normal and should be ignored by most Mac users. If you're still having trouble opening the file, try copying it to your desktop or another folder before trying to open it with Mail, as described below.
You can also use a third-party program like WinMerge to open winmail.dat files on Mac OS X, which we'll show you how to do below.
How to open winmail.dat files with a third-party application?
The only way that we're aware of for opening winmail. dat files on Mac OS X is to use a third-party application like WinMerge. This free program will open any file, regardless of format or extension, so you can easily view the contents of winmail.dat files by simply double clicking them in the Finder.
To install WinMerge, simply download the program from here , then double click on the WinMerge application to launch it.
Once launched, you'll see a window that looks like this:
Simply drag and drop your winmail.dat file into the left panel of WinMerge to open it in the right panel. You can then view the contents of your winmail.dat file by simply double clicking on it, as shown below:
WinMerge is a very powerful program that allows you to open many different types of files, but unfortunately it does not work with winmail.dat files on Mac OS X.
How to open winmail.dat files in Microsoft Outlook?
To view the contents of your winmail.dat file in Microsoft Outlook, simply click on the File menu and select Open Mail File... then select your winmail.dat file from your desktop or another folder . Outlook will then open your winmail.dat file and display its contents in the message window, as shown below:
As you can see, opening winmail.dat files in Microsoft Outlook is very easy once you know how to do it!
How to open winmail.dat files on Windows?
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to open winmail.dat files on Windows. However, you can use a third-party program called D2D Converter for opening these files in Microsoft Outlook or any other email client that supports .msg format files (such as Apple Mail).
Benefits of using WinMerge to view winmail.dat files
WinMerge is a free program that can be used to view the contents of winmail.dat files, which are files generated by Windows XP and later operating systems. WinMerge was created by Christian Martel. The purpose of this program is to help users identify different types of viruses and malware.
The program is very easy to use, as you can see from the screenshot above. It also supports many different file formats, including winmail.dat files. You can download WinMerge from this link.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What do you use to open winmail.dat files in Microsoft Outlook?
To open winmail.dat files in Microsoft Outlook, you can use File Explorer, the Windows Explorer file extension association settings, or the Windows PowerShell command Get-itemproperty.
2. How can you open winmail.dat files in Microsoft Outlook?
Open winmail.dat files in Microsoft Outlook is based on opening them in Microsoft Word. This can be done by right-clicking the file and selecting "open with" and choosing "word processor".
3. What are the benefits of using WinMerge to view winmail.dat files?
There are many benefits of using WinMerge to view the files, it is a free program that allows you to view the contents of winmail.dat files without having to download them. It is also very similar to Windows Explorer so it offers a seamless transition between the two programs.
4. Why will WinMerge not work with winmail.dat files on Mac OS X?
WinMerge cannot open files that are stored in Mac OS X's native binary format, called MacBinary. The extensibility of the Windows file system allows for different formats to be stored on the same drive, but Mac OS X keeps all files in their native format.
