Where is the view message source option for Outlook gone?

Question

Up until a very recent "patch", there was a "view message source" option on the right click menu - without having to open the email. This is now gone.

This functionality is essential for detecting phishing emails. Who was the genious that thought it was a great idea to remove it?

And How the hell can I view a message source withotu actually opening the email (and triggering any embeded links that allow tracking/trojans)?

Answer 1

Hello, Eben Ezer Tres | Microsoft Community Moderator 

-- Sir, the process you recommended on 22May2024 DOES NOT display, or allow a text search of, the ENTIRE source code of an e-mail. Classic Outlook used as you direct only shows the header information - and that is not in original, as-passed over the Internet, form, it is structured by Outlook.

-- Using your "header" method on a recent malicious phishing e-mail I received, spoofing the Sender as "service-at-paypal-dot-com", the Outlook Header access you recommend only provided a small part of the data in the whole e-mail. Much of the text, and many potentially malicious link-buttons included in the email, was not made accessible through Outlook Header.

-- The mails in this case are sent to my own domain, hosted by Earthlink. OE6 says the encoding is Unicode (UTF-8) - useful information that cannot be found in Outlook. Running Win 11 Pro, Outlook Version 16.0.18324 20194, purchased in September 2024. .

-- Long ago, Outlook Express 6 offered a simple way to extract and save the ENTIRE source code in an e-mail. This is sometimes an important forensic tool. Please encourage Microsoft to make it available again, soon. Thank you.

/ Spam target.

Answer 2

Dear Eben and Microsoft Team,

This is a terrible work around. Add the feature back to the application. As with the other users, it is critical that I be able to view the raw source of the email without opening it, without interpretation by a garbage AI "analyzer". The phishing attacks we are seeing are so much more sophisticated than they used to be and removing this feature makes it much much harder to detect them. Totally not helpful, and not a good idea. Product team please get a clue.

Liam

Answer 3

Replying to RJ Nonay's initial post, "Where is the view message source option for Outlook gone?

-- Running Classic Outlook on new Windows 11 Pro -- the answer Eben-Ezer Tres MFT gave on May 22, 2024 does work in Classic Outlook now, forget about three dots, open the e-mail, left-click on "File" at the top left, and then "Properties," but it only shows the message headers.

-- Google's AI Artificial Intelligence answer now (11Feb25) says put cursor over the message and right-click. Depending on the sender and the message encoding, this >may< open a text file which looks like source but is not. With most messages, it doesn't do anything at all. So much for Google AI.

-- MICROSOFT, PLEASE FIX THIS. As RJ Noney said, "View Source" used to give the user a real view, and a savable text file, of the true source code, from IP transmission data to the end of the body. PLEASE. This is not hard. Thank you with hope.

/ Call me spammed.

Answer 4

Hello, Eben Ezer Tres | Microsoft Community Moderator 

-- Sir, the process you recommended on 22May2024 DOES NOT display, or allow a text search of, the ENTIRE source code of an e-mail. Classic Outlook used as you direct only shows the header information - and that is not in original, as-passed over the Internet, form, it is structured by Outlook.

-- Using your "header" method on a recent malicious phishing e-mail I received, spoofing the Sender as "service-at-paypal-dot-com", the Outlook Header access you recommend only provided a small part of the data in the whole e-mail. Much of the text, and many potentially malicious link-buttons included in the email, was not made accessible through Outlook Header.

-- The mails in this case are sent to my own domain, hosted by Earthlink. OE6 says the encoding is Unicode (UTF-8) - useful information that cannot be found in Outlook. Running Win 11 Pro, Outlook Version 16.0.18324 20194, purchased in September 2024. .

-- Long ago, Outlook Express 6 offered a simple way to extract and save the ENTIRE source code in an e-mail. This is sometimes an important forensic tool. Please encourage Microsoft to make it available again, soon. Thank you.

/ Spam target.

I was also looking for the WHOLE source code of the email, including MIME-types of attachments etc.

It worked for me using the office.com-Outlook in the browser.

Open the email there (double click) -> use the 3 dots in right corner (the lower ones in the same height as the sender address) -> Download -> Download as EML.

This one is readable in any editor (much better than the msg-format) and it seems to have it all, including attachments.

Answer 5

What a stupid solution by MS. You don't want to open the darn email if you think it is hostile. Opening the email to see it's source will get you close to getting infected. Why the H would Microsoft take this away in newer version??????? What were they thinking??????????????