OFF: win.dat

[Ed Gallagher]

>
> On 28 Aug 96 at 14:10, Peter Sondergeld wrote:
>
> > Can any technically minded person explain what this is and why this happens?
> > There's someone on another list I'm on who has a win.dat attached to EVERY
> > post, and they've apologised profusely and frequently, saying that their
> > computing people are unable to stop it happening
>
> They are pretty much telling the truth there ....there are a few mail
> readers around which do neet things like allow embedded objects (such
> as graphics etc.) included in the file ..... this is NON standard, so
> to get it all to work the data which describes the add ons (such as
> font information etc.) is sent as an attachment which THAT particular
> mail reader detects and decodes automatically.
>
> Paul Ward        aka: Assassin Sonique'   .---.  __  .--------   Long

Right on the nose!
>From what I can gather, it is the formatting information produced by the
Microsoft Exchange (comes with Win 95 and NT) email client. This process
allows those with similar mail systems to view the mail as a sort of Rich
Text Format (RTF) file with font and graphic info included. Since that
info is treated as an attachment, it also allows those with dissimilar
(straight text, etc.) mail systems to still read the text content of the
message.

I know that this is not helping your particular situation, but I hope it
helps explain it.

--
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research,
would it?"  - Albert Einstein

Edward Gallagher                           Internet  egallagh at harper.cc.il.us
Advanced Technology Specialist
William Rainey Harper College
Information Systems/User Service              Pager  (708) 962-4886
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