Microsoft Outlook
| File:Outlook 2003.png | |
| File:Outlook 2003.jpg Screenshot of Outlook 2003. | |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2003
/ October 2003 |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Personal information manager |
| License | Proprietary EULA |
| Website | The Official Microsoft Outlook site |
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite.
Although often used mainly as an e-mail application, it also provides calendar, task and contact management, Note taking and Journal ability.
It can be used as a stand-alone application, but can also operate in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server to provide enhanced functions for multiple users in an organization, such as shared mailboxes and calendars, public folders and meeting time allocation.
Different versions
Versions of Microsoft Outlook include:
- Outlook 97.
- Outlook 98.
- Outlook 2000 (also known as Outlook 9).
- Outlook 2002 (also known as Outlook 10 or Outlook XP).
- Office Outlook 2003 (also known as Outlook 11).
Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 could be installed in one of two "flavors":
- Internet Mail Only or IMO mode: A lighter application mode with specific emphasis on POP3 accounts and IMAP accounts and including a lightweight Fax application.
- Corporate Workgroup or CW mode: A full MAPI client with specific emphasis on Microsoft Exchange accounts.
Microsoft also released several versions of Outlook for the Apple Macintosh; however, most mail features were disabled after Office 98. After Office 98, Entourage replaced Outlook on Macintosh systems, however in 2001, Microsoft released Outlook 2001 for Mac to allow Classic users to access Exchange servers. Over the past few years, Microsoft has improved Entourage to provide Mac users with a Mac OS X-compatible Exchange client, though it does not have the entire functionality provided by Outlook.
Outlook Express is a slimmed-down e-mail, newsgroup, and contact management application that Microsoft makes available at no charge, in conjunction with the Internet Explorer web browser. Other than the confusingly similar name it has very little in common with Outlook.
Security concerns
One of Microsoft's goals is for the e-mail client to be easy to use. However, the embedded automation and lack of security features compared to competitors have been repeatedly exploited by malicious hackers using e-mail viruses. These typically take the form of an e-mail attachment which executes on the user's machine and replicates itself by mass-mailing the user's or Exchange server's address list. Examples of such viruses are the Melissa and Sobig worms. Other programs have exploited Outlook's HTML e-mail capabilities to execute malicious code or confirm that e-mail addresses are valid targets for spam. The notoriety of the worms and other viruses has gained Outlook a reputation as a highly insecure e-mail platform.
Unix programmer Bill Joy has suggested that Outlook is insecure largely because it was written in C, making it easy to write programs to exploit it. He also believes the widespread use of Outlook is a major contributing factor in the proliferation of spam [1]. His views are shared by many leading IT professionals.
As part of its Trusted Computing initiative, Microsoft has recently taken corrective steps to fix Outlook's reputation in its latest incarnation, Office Outlook 2003. Among the most publicized security features are that Office Outlook 2003 does not automatically load images in HTML e-mails, and includes a built-in spam filter [2] Service Pack 2 has augmented these features and adds an anti-Phishing filter [3]. The base code is also said to be much more secure.
As of July 2005, this most recent release has been well received, and regarded as the primary driver of Office upgrades among business users. Instances of new worms have slowed significantly, however, due to the release of numerous security updates and Service Packs which have corrected the known vulnerabilities exploited by previous viruses.
Upcoming releases
Template:Future software Outlook 2007 has been announced and should be available in late 2006. Features include [4]:
- A to-do bar added to the Inbox view which shows a snapshot of the user's calendar and tasks list for better time and project management.
- Improved calendar views that display the tasks due below each day on the week view.
- Integrated RSS aggregator
See also
- Comparison of e-mail clients
- Comparison of personal information managers
- List of personal information managers
- Outlook Express
- Outlook Redemption
- Outlook Web Access
External links
- The Official Microsoft Outlook site
- Slipstick.com — A popular Outlook and Exchange support site
- Microsoft Outlook at FactPlace
- MAPILab: 20+ add-ins for Microsoft Outlook 2000-2003
- Microsoft Outlook Newsgroups
- Importing mails from Mozilla Thunderbird
- Potolook — an extensive package of Outlook plug-ins
- Add-in Express — Outlook COM add-in development on .NET
- Outlook Skype plugin to make phone calls to contacts
- Password Recovery Engine for Outlook A tool to recover Outlook passwords, PST file passwords and Outlook mail passwords.
- Recovery Toolbox Outlook Recovery Toolbox Tool for recovering objects from a damaged or corrupted PST file.
- Recovery Toolbox Password Recovery Toolbox for Outlook Tool for recovering passwords for e-mail accounts or PST files.
- DateDex — Calendar directory, listing global events. Download / Subscribe to calendars in iCalendar format
- ZideLook — Commercial Outook plugin that supports the OpenGroupware.org groupware server.
- Java & Outlook Interoperability: J-Integra for COM -- commercial Java to COM bi-directional bridging tool, that natively/remotely exposes Outlook's COM API functions to Java.
References
- ^ Fortune Magazine interview with Bill Joy
- ^ Microsoft Office 2003 editions comparison
- ^ Microsoft 'Security at Home' website
- ^ Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 product overview
