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How to associate EML files and attachments with windows mail or Outlook express?

Aftab Alam

Read time 2 minutes

Opening an attachment in the email message is quite easy as you only need to double-click it. It will open in the new window and you can check the content whether it is document, image, zip file, audio, or video. But the problem starts to occur when you double-click in the attachment and it show some random error, or it opens in such application that does not belong to the file type.

Whenever you get such errors, then you should not delete the email but reassociate the EML file with the Outlook Express. The following method shows the simple process to add the EML file with the Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail.

Associate .EML Files and Attachments with Windows Mail

To make .eml files and attachments open in Windows Mail:

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Type default programs in the Search field of the Start menu
  3. Click Default Programs
  4. Follow the Associate a file type or protocol with a program link.
  5. Highlight .eml in the list.
  6. Click Change Program
  7. Select Windows Mail
    • If Windows Mail is not in the Recommended Programs list, click Browse, type “winmail.exe” under File name
    • Click Open
  8. Click OK.
  9. Click Close.

There is another alternative to associate EML files and attachments in Windows Mail. This method will also make Windows Mail your default program for composing emails. So, do not use this method if you solely want to associate .eml files with Windows Mail.

  1. Select Tools and then Options from the menu in the Windows Mail
  2. Select the General tab
  3. Click Make Default under This application is NOT the default Mail handler

Associate .EML files and attachments with Outlook express

To make sure .eml files and attachments open in Outlook Express:

  1. Open Start menu.
  2. Select Run from the Start menu
  3. Type “msimn /reg” in the Open drop down
  4. Click OK

With these steps, one can easily open and access the EML files with Outlook Express or Windows mail. Want to recover emails of Outlook Express? If yes, then you must have DBX files to perform outlook express recovery. Kernel for Outlook Express is best tool to repair outlook express dbx files and recover emails from them.