Ever have someone send you an attachment only to end up with nothing but a stupid winmail.dat file? Irritating to say the least - having to deal with this in a work environment can become a hindrance to productivity. Well, this is not something that just happens to the non-tech types; it can happen to all of us. As a matter of fact, it happened to myself and someone that I work with. He was trying to send me an attachment with some information that I needed, but all I ended up with was that gosh darned winmail.dat file neatly tucked into the e-mail.

I, being a huge “know it all,” sprang into action with solutions that have worked for me in the past and promptly sent them to the person who had sent me the e-mail. Being the timely person that he is, my “co-worker” already had two resources that not only explained why this happens, but also what can be done to fix this problem.

Two great resources that he sent to me:

WMDecode for Windows: Designed to quickly and easily decode those pesky file attachments labeled winmail.dat or ATT00001.dat with minimal headache. Just download and install the program onto your PC.

Winmail.dat file prevention: Here is a great approach to keeping it from happening in the first place. Microsoft offers a handy resource for those interested in keeping this from being an issue. Provide this information to everyone that you work with and you will find this is a very preventable problem. It just takes some understanding and a little know-how.

A very kind thank you goes out to the person who sent these great resources to me, they are appreciated. It also gave me an opportunity to share them with the entire Gnome clan and perhaps prevent a little frustration from creeping into someone’s life! [Matt Hartley]