SUMMARY
The article contains REGISTRY entries for Microsoft Mail, Part 1. These
subgroups are included:
- Address Book Entries for Mail
- Custom Commands Entries for Mail
- Custom Messages Entries for Mail
- Custom Menus Entries for Mail
This is the first of three articles on the MS Mail entries; for the other
entries, see "Microsoft Mail Entries, Part 2" and "Microsoft Mail Entries,
Part 3".
REGISTRY ENTRIES FOR MICROSOFT MAIL
The parameters used by the Microsoft Mail application provided with Windows
NT appear under this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail
This key includes the following subkeys:
Subkey Purpose
--------------------------
Address Book Secifies entries used by the Address Book support
functions for the Mail program.
Custom Commands Specifies a custom command that can be installed into
one of the Mail menus at run-time.
Custom Messages Specifies a custom message type that is installed into a
Mail menu at run-time.
Custom Menus Specifies a custom menu name to be added to the Mail
menu bar.
Microsoft Mail Defines the configuration of the Mail program, and the
Microsoft Mail transport and name service.
MMF Affects the automatic compression of the Mail message
file.
Mac File Types Defines the mapping from Macintosh file type and creator
tags into eight-plus-three character filename
extensions.
MS Proofing Tools Defines settings for the speller.
Providers Defines settings that service providers use Microsoft
Mail front-end programs.
Many of the entries in these subkeys have default values and won't be
present in the Mail subkeys. To change the appearance and behavior of the
Mail application, use the Mail menu commands instead of editing the Mail
entries directly. Some of the options that you specify in the Mail
application are stored in your mail message file (.MMF) instead of the Mail
Registry entries.
These keys are created in HKEY_CURRENT_USER when you first run Mail. If
your system previously contained a Windows for MS-DOS version of
MSMAIL.INI, its contents are migrated to the Registry when you first run
Mail under Windows NT.
ADDRESS BOOK ENTRIES FOR MAIL
Entries in this subkey are used by the Address Book support functions in
the Mail program. Most of the entries for this subkey use default values
specified by the Mail program, and the Address Book subkey might not be
present under the Mail key. The entries in this subkey control the default
address directory displayed in the Address Book. Do not change any of these
entries if they appear.
This is the Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\Address Book
CUSTOM COMMANDS ENTRIES FOR MAIL
Each entry under this key specifies a custom command that can be installed
into one of the Mail menus at run-time. These entries can appear both in
the Microsoft Mail key and in the SHARED32.INI file in the directory
defined under the Microsoft Mail subkey as the value of
SharedExtensionsDir.
This is the Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\Custom Commands
The Custom Commands subkey can contain one or more of the following
entries:
tag REG_SZ
------------
This specifies the descriptive identifier for the command in the
following format:
tag= version;menu;name;position;DLL name, ordinal;command;
event map;status text;Help file;help context;
For example:
IC1= 3.0;help;&Out of Office;10;<ExtsDir>BIN-EXT\OOF32.DLL;3;;
Out of Office Email Notification
Value Meaning
---------------------
version The version of Mail that the custom command is compatible
with.
menu The menu where the custom command is to be added, such as
File or Help.
name The command name to appear on the menu. Include an ampersand
just before the letter that is to serve as an ALT+key
accelerator.
position The zero-relative position within its menu where the command
is to appear. A menu value of -1 places the command at the
end of the menu.
DLL Name or path of the DLL where the custom command resides.
This entry can optionally be followed by a comma and the
ordinal of the entry point to call (default is ,1).
command The command string passed as one of the parameters to the
DLL entry point for the command.
event map A sequence of up to 16 digits identifying the Mail events
that the custom command supports. Each can be 0 or 1 to
indicate if the DLL is to be called for a specific event.
Currently, three events are defined; the rest are reserved
and must be zero (or, as in the examples above) this whole
section can be empty:
The first digit means Mails startup.
The second digit means Mail exit.
The third digit means the arrival of a new message.
status text Text to be displayed in the Mail status bar when the user
highlights the command in the menu.
Help file Windows NT Help file to be invoked when the user presses F1
while the command is selected. The specified filename is
passed to the Windows NT Help program. (Optional)
Help Passed to the Windows NT help program along with context the
Help file name. Use -1 (Help file index) if there is no
specific entry in the Help file for this command.
<ExtsDir> A special token that can appear within certain fields.
Expands to the value of SharedExtensionsDir in the Microsoft
Mail key. used to refer to DLLs that are installed in a
shared network. Valid fo the Dll name, command, and Help
file subfields.CUSTOM MESSAGES ENTRIES FOR MAIL
This subkey is similar in many ways to the Custom Commands subkey. Each
entry specifies a custom message type to be installed into a Mail menu at
run-time.
These entries can appear both in the Microsoft Mail key and in the
SHARED32.INI file in the directory defined by the SharedExtensionsDir entry
under the Microsoft Mail key.
This is the Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\Custom Messages
The Custom Messages subkey can contain one or more of the following
entries.
class REG_SZ
--------------
Specifies a string uniquely identifying the message type. Mail places this
string in messages and calls custom message DLLs based on its value. Each
entry is in the following format:
class = version;menu;name;position;DLL name;command;operation map;
status text;Help file;help context;
Value Meaning
--------------------
version the version of Mail that the custom message is compatible
with.
menu The menu where the custom command for the message type is to
be added, such as File or Mail.
name The command name to appear on the menu. Include an ampersand
just before the letter that is to serve as an ALT+key
accelerator.
position The zero-relative position within its menu where the command
is to appear. A menu value of -1 places the command at the
end of the menu.
DLL Name or path of the DLL where the custom command resides.
This entry can optionally be followed by a comma and the
ordinal of the entry point to call (default is ,1).
command The command string passed as one of the parameters to the DLL
entry point for the command.
operation Sequence of up to 16 digits. Each can be 0, 1 or 2, where 0
map indicates that Mail is to perform its standard operation on
the custom message. 1 indicates that the DLL is to be called
to handle the operation. 2 indicates that the operation is to
be completely disabled. Currently eight operations are
defined; the rest are reserved and must be zero. In the
following list, 0 is the leftmost digit.
0 Compose (menu command defined in this entry)
1 File.Open
2 Mail.Reply
3 Mail.Reply to All
4 Mail.Forward
5 File.Print
6 File.Save as
7 Arrival of new mail
status text Text to be displayed in the Mail status bar when the user
highlights the command in the menu.
Help file Windows NT Help file to be invoked when the user presses F1
while the command is selected. The specified filename is
passed to the Windows NT Help program. (Optional)
Help Passed to the Windows NT hlp program along with
context the Help file name. Use -1 (Help file index) if there is no
specific entry in the Help file for this command.
<ExtsDir> A special token that can appear within certain fields.
Expands to the value of SharedExtensionsDir in the Microsoft
Mail key. used to refer to DLLs that are installed in a
shared network. Valid fo the Dll name, command, and Help file
subfields.CUSTOM MENUS ENTRIES FOR MAIL
This subkey can contain any number of entries (within reason). You can use
these menus to group custom commands and/or messages under a single,
distinctive menu item.
This is the Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\Custom Menus
The following information can appear both in the Microsoft Mail key and in
SHARED32.INI in the directory defined by SharedExtensionsDir under the
Microsoft Mail key. The SHARED32.INI file is examined
first.
tag REG_SZ
Identifies the menu to someone reading these values but serves no other
purpose. Specifies a menu name to be added to the Mail menu bar. This is
the format:
Tag=version;name;name to follow;status text
For example:
tools=3.0;&Tools;Window;Useful development toys
Value Meaning
------------------
version the version of Mail that the custom message is compatible with;
3.0 is the current version.
name The menu name to be added to the menu bar. Include an ampersand
just before the letter that is to serve as an ALT+key
accelerator.
name to Name of an existing menu. The new menu is
follow added directly before it.
status Text to be displayed in the Mail status bar
text when the user highlights the menu name.
Reference: "The Windows NT Resource Kit for Operating System, Version 3.1".