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
    2013-08-05T23:55:20+00:00

    On the Wikipedia page you referred me to, you can read that *Web bugs can also be filtered out at the server level so that they never reach the end user.*That's what SmartScreen does at outlook.com.

     Its not just spam/junk some of us are concerned about ...

    I didn't mention spam/junk. I wrote about suspicious content. WLMail doesn't provide a folder specifically for suspicious mail; there's no reason to, because the Junk email folder serves the same purpose. Messages delivered there are not displayed unless the user chooses specifically to do so. You thus have the possibility of examining the message source to look for anything untoward before opening the message.

    I think you're tilting at windmills.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-08-05T23:35:41+00:00

    "Any message delivered to the inbox is allegedly clean" (emphasis mine)

    Its not just spam/junk some of us are concerned about:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_bug#Email_web_bugs

    Plus, call me crazy, but I just think that options should mean what they say: "Block images and other external content in HTML email"

    But thank you for explaining it in a better manner.  I now understand what is going on a little better.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-08-05T23:08:13+00:00

    This is just speculation: every message sent to a Hotmail-type address is scanned at outlook.com before delivery, e.g. by DeltaSync to Windows Live Mail. If there's anything at all dodgy in it - in the message body, in any attachment or any linked content

    • then it will either not be delivered at all or it will be flagged as suspicious. If it's flagged as suspicious, it will be delivered to the junk folder, which in WLMail means that none of the message will be displayed at all unless the user actually opens it. Any message delivered to the inbox is allegedly clean and will be displayed in the reading pane. There is no need to block the display of external content - it's already been checked and passed.

    This will not apply to other mail services over which MS has no control, so external content - including images - cannot be trusted. External content will thus be blocked in messages from such services if the user elects to do so.

    The user has also the option of reading only the plain text part of the message, effectively blocking all images. This can be overridden at read-time by pressing Alt-Shift-H.

    This strikes me as a sensible modus operandi. How is it a problem?

    I don't understand Ron's reference to an antediluvian thread about not seeing images in received messages either.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-08-05T22:28:23+00:00

    So, just to be clear, Microsoft has decided that it will show images in e-mail when it wants to and will ignore the desires of the user.  Got it...  "by design"

    I suggest changing the text for that setting from "Block images and other external content in HTML email" to "Block images and other external content in HTML email (except MSN/Outlook/Hotmail)" to avoid any confusion by users in the future.

    Your link is not helpful.  It doesn't even mention "Outlook with DeltaSync".  It deals with someone who WANTS to see all their images.  We do not.  And thought, erroneously, that the setting mentioned would cover that.  It does... for all e-mail except MSN/Outlook/Hotmail.

    I have made the global setting change to only read in plain text and have begun to transition my accounts away from MSN.

    Thank you for finally acknowledging that this is an actual issue and not some anomaly being seen by the other users in this thread.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-08-05T21:01:46+00:00

    Hi Everyone,

    I've brought this issue to the attention of Product Specialist and it has been communicated that this is by design (Outlook using DeltaSync).  No immediate changes will be made to the application in order to change current image rendering behavior.

    I suggest that you visit the thread below for reference regarding to this behavior:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-windows_programs/blocked-images-in-an-e-mail-message-in-windows/7d6351e6-b032-40ee-8e06-cdea6f7a31b0

    Thank you for your feedback.

    Regards,

    Ron - Support Specialist

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