Stop Sending Winmail.dat Files from Exchange 2016/2013/2010 & Outlook

Hello guys in this article I am going to discuss about Exchange 2016 / 2013 / 2010 sending attachments as Winmail.dat file and how to stop sending Winmail.dat file. As you might have got this kind of attachments in your inbox. There are many reasons for getting Winmail.dat file as attachments. But all reasons will be connected to Rich Text Format file (RTF). These type of files are also called TNEF (Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format) files.

In this write up you will also learn how to prevent winmail.dat file being sent to other users while using Internet Mail Connector of Exchange Server.

You can see below given images for viewing example of Winmail.dat file as attachment.

 

How to Stop Sending Winmail.dat Files?

You can use any below technique to stop sending winmail.dat file as attachment.

#1 Create List of Custom Recipients

If you are Administrator of Exchange server then while creating custom recipient using Exchange Admin Center in Exchange Server 2016/2013 or Exchange Management Console in Exchange Server 2010, Uncheck the checkbox "Always Send to This Recipient in Microsoft Exchange Rich Text Format".

#2 Modify Existing Exchange and Custom Recipients

Exchange Administrator can stop any user account from sending RTF information. Just follow below steps to do this.

1. Just click on Recipient name and then go to File menu and click on Properties.
2. Now go to Advanced Properties and then Uncheck MAPI Recipient checkbox.

#3 Modify Addresses in PAB

Sender can modify address in Personal Address Book (PAB) to stop sending RTF (Rich Text Format) information. To do this just follow below steps.

1. Just click on that user address which you want to send Plain Text message. Then go to File menu and click on Properties.
2. Now uncheck the checkbox "Always Send to This Recipient in Microsoft Exchange Rich Text Format".

#4 By changing configuration of Internet Mail Connector (IMC)

Administrator can change the configuration of Internet Mail Connector with Rich Text Format options. Just follow below steps:

1. Go to Internet Mail Flow properties and then click on General tab.
2. Now you will see a list box "Send Microsoft Exchange Rich Text".
3. Here you need to set any one value among User, Always, and Never. Where "User" send RTF message according to the configuration of recipient properties, "Always" will allow to send RTF messages always and "Never" will never send RTF messages.

#5 By running Command in Exchange Management Shell or PowerShell

Just run below written command for setting Simple Text format as default  for sendin messages from Exchange server to other mail server's account.

Set-RemoteDomain Default -TNEFEnabled $false

Receipient Queries about winmail.dat file

Why am I Getting winmail.dat Attachments?

You are getting Winmail.dat file as attachments because sender is sending you email in RTF format. RTF formats are those formats which allow sender to send emails with highly graphics oriented emails. RTF or Rich Text Format file supports highly designed contents like HTML Contents & Designed documents. For viewing these type of emails receiver should have Outlook email client with configuration of viewing RTF type email messages. Message Sender also should have Microsoft Outlook for sending these type of emails. To avoid receiving RTF emails you can ask sender to send emails again as Simple Text Format.

How to Open Winmail.dat file email attachment on iPhone, Mac, Android, iPad & Windows?

It is really very easy task to open Winmail.dat attachment in any platform. There are many tools which you can download. Some are online tools, some are mobile applications for iPhone and Android, and some are Windows and Mac Application. Some are free and some are paid. But I am not going to describe about all tools here. But keep one thing in mind that if you know that in your Winmail.dat file a very important information is stored. Then i will recommend you to go with any paid tool. You can download Winmail.dat Reader application for Windows and Android by going through below link:

http://www.winmail-dat.com/

If you wanna view data online from Winmail.data file then you can go through below link for this. You can also download Winmail.dat viewer application for Android, iPhone, & Windows Mobile.

http://www.winmaildat.com

Conclusion

In this article we have discussed about how to stop sending Winmail.dat files as attachment from Exchange 2016/2013/2010 and Outlook. It was really very simple to stop sending Winmail.dat file as attachment for a sender and it was also very easy to open Winmail.dat file using free tool or paid tool and view the data present inside it.


Tej Pratap Shukla
https://about.me/tejpratap