OL2000: How to Turn Off Animated Graphics In HTML e-mail (222209)

SUMMARY

Under some circumstances you may want to turn off the display of animations in HTML-formatted e-mail messages. For example, if you are running Microsoft Outlook from Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, animations may adversely impact performance. This article explains how to turn off animations in HTML e-mail messages while still showing a static graphic in place of the animation.

MORE INFORMATION

Animated graphics can adversely impact performance, especially with Outlook running on Terminal Server. Non-local bus computers (mostly those using older processors) must render each new video signal separately, and this becomes extremely slow with some animations.

In Outlook this problem is most noticeable when opening HTML e-mail that contains multiple animated graphics. HTML e-mail messages use Microsoft Internet Explorer components to render the message. You can use the Internet Explorer multimedia settings to control how Outlook displays HTML e-mail, including animations.

With Microsoft Office programs running on Terminal Server, every effort is made to avoid the communications overhead of displaying animations. For example, the default Office Assistant is a static graphic. By using the Internet Explorer policy file (Inetset.adm), Terminal Server administrators can turn on or off the Play animations setting; this is an Internet Explorer multimedia setting which controls whether or not animations will be played when an HTML page is displayed.

To Turn Off the Play Animations Setting

Internet Explorer 5.x

Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Multimedia, click to clear the Play animations check box, and then click OK.

Internet Explorer 4.x

Start Internet Explorer.
On the View menu, click Internet Options.
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Multimedia, click to clear the Play animations check box, and then click OK.