Windows Live Mail 2012 not Blocking Hotmail Images

Anonymous
2013-03-22T17:45:35+00:00

Hi everyone, I've been running Windows 8 Enterprise with Windows Live Mail 2012 since the fall.  I have Windows Live Mail configured for 13 email accounts - most are IMAP accounts, a couple Yahoo! accounts, a GMail account, and a Hotmail account (@hotmail.com).  I have "Block images and other external content in HTML email" checked in the Safety Options on the Security tab.  It works exactly the way it should so I get an email with images and they're blocked unless I click "Show images" on the message or if they are already in my Safe Senders list.

However, this works for all my accounts in Live Mail except my Hotmail account.  For some reason ALL images just show up and are not blocked.  Most of these are spam, so this is really bad because of the potential of web beacons letting the spammers know that the address is legit.  I can't figure out what's going on with this.  I had cleared all my Safe Senders to start from scratch just in case that was the issue, but it made no difference.

If I log into the Hotmail website (or Outlook.com), the option for "Block attachments, pictures, and links for anyone not in my safe senders list" is checked and the same messages that are showing images in Windows Live Mail are being correctly blocked on the websites.

So the problem has to be something on the Windows Live Mail client specific to Hotmail accounts (or at least mine), but I'm just not sure where to go next.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

-- Jim

Windows for home | Other | Email and communications

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-07-30T12:53:17+00:00

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this only happens on Outlook accounts configured to use DeltaSync over HTTP. The solution would then be to use POP3 instead.

    If obvious spam is being delivered to the inbox, then the security level should be raised. The one I use is Safe list only, with Also trust email from my contacts selected. That way, I can train the junk filter by adding senders to the safe senders list as appropriate. Messages in the Junk email folder are not displayed at all as a safety measure, so their source can easily be examined before any damage is done.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-07-30T11:18:57+00:00

    Try turning off HTML emails in WL Mail, or try using the Outlook.com web interface or an Exchange ActiveSync client (sadly none of them are completely free).

    Or just switch (back) to Gmail altogether.

    If you’re looking for a useful answer from the support engineers on this forum I think you’re wasting your time.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-07-30T05:20:23+00:00

    No updates to this thread since April?

    I feel this is a much bigger security hole than is being discussed here.  The whole reason for the option to disable of downloading images was born out of the possibility of it being exploited.

    And it is only broken for my MSN account.  My 2 GMail accounts properly block ALL the images, which is what the option is suppose to do.  It shouldn't matter what the "SCL" level is or "l" value is.  Just block them ALL.

    If not fixed soon, then I will abandon Live Mail (and the Essential Suite as a whole), and/or stop using my MSN e-mail account.  Probably both.

    -T

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-04-06T00:21:41+00:00

    Hello,

    @Jim,

    Thank you for the updates that you've provided on the issue. I will be re-escalating your issue to our support specialist for further assistance on your inquiry.

    We appreciate you kind consideration.

    @JC Chu,

    We appreciate the help that you've provided.

    Thank you.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-04-05T18:14:50+00:00

    Just got another one in my inbox that didn't prompt on showing images...

    X-Message-Delivery: Vj0xLjE7dXM9MDtsPTE7YT0xO0Q9MTtHRD0xO1NDTD0z

    This does seem to be consistent with your findings... impressive how you found that to begin with!

    Microsoft, any thoughts on this?

    -- Jim

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