The article contains REGISTRY entries for Microsoft Mail, Part 3. These
subgroups are included:
- Mac File Types Entries for Mail
- MS Proofing Tools Entries for Mail
- Providers Entries for Mail
This is the third of three articles on the MS Mail entries; for the other
entries, see "Microsoft Mail Entries, Part 1" and "MicrosoftMail Entries,
Part 2".
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.
MMF ENTRIES FOR MAIL
Most entries under this key affect automatic compression of the Mail
message file, which by default has the filename extension of .MMF. When
enabled, automatic compression uses idle time on your PC to recover disk
space freed by the deleted messages and returns the disk space to the file
system. You should not need to change the default values for entries in
this subkey.
This is the Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\MMF
Kb_Free_Start_Compress REG_SZ kilobytes
-------------------------------------------
Default: 300
Background compression starts when at least this much recoverable space is
detected in your message file. Both Percent_Free_Start_Compress and this
entry are always active. The first entry to trigger starts the compression.
Kb_Free_Stop_Compress REG_SZ kilobytes
------------------------------------------
Default: 100.
Background compression stops when there is less than the indicated amount
of recoverable space in your message file. This avoids the unnecessary
difficulty in trying to recover the last little bit of free space. Both
this entry and Percent_Free_Stop_Compress are always active. The first
entry to trigger stops the compression.
No_Compress REG_SZ 0 or 1
-----------------------------
Default: 0 (That is, background compression is enabled.)
Specifies whether background compression is to be disabled. A value of 1
disables background compression of the .MMF message store.
Percent_Free_Start_Compress REG_SZ percent
----------------------------------------------
Default: 10
Background compression starts when the amount of recoverable space rises
above this percentage of the total file size. Both Kb_Free_Start_Compress
and this entry are always active. The first one to trigger starts the
compression.
Percent_Free_Stop_Compress REG_SZ percent
---------------------------------------------
Default: 5
Background compression stops when the amount of recoverable space falls
below this percentage of the total .MMF file size. Both this entry and
Kb_Free_Stop_Compress are always active. The last one to trigger stops the
compression.
Secs_Till_Fast_Compress REG_SZ seconds
------------------------------------------
Default: 600 seconds (That is, ten minutes of system inactivity.)
The background compression algorithm has a fast mode and a slow mode.
Background compression begins in the slow mode to avoid slowing system
response time. After a number of seconds of system inactivity indicated by
this entry, the compression switches to fast mode. Any user activity
changes the setting back to slow mode.
See also the entry for AppInit_DLLs in the article"Windows Software
Registration Entries".
MAC FILETYPES ENTRIES FOR MAIL
Entries in this subkey map the Macintosh file type and creator tags to MS-
DOS eight-plus-three filenames. This is the Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\Mac FileTypes
Mail uses these entry values to determine what application to launch on a
file attachment that has been sent from a Macintosh mail client. There are
two alternate forms for the entries:
creator:type=extension or :type=extension
Both the creator and type are sequences of four characters (possibly
including blanks). For example,
launches the application associated with the extension .DOC (Word for
Windows, for example) on any Macintosh file of type TEXT.
MS PROOFING TOOLS ENTRIES FOR MAIL
The MS Proofing Tools subkey defines spelling values for Mail. This is the
Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\MS Proofing Tools
CustomDict REG_SZ entry name
--------------------------------
Default: (no default)
Specifies the name of an entry in the [MS Proofing Tools] section of the
WIN.INI file. That entry in turn gives the fully qualified path to a file
containing your custom dictionary. The custom dictionary contains spellings
not found in the standard dictionary but that were added using the Add
button in the Spelling dialog box. This entry lets Mail take advantage of a
custom dictionary you may have already created with another Microsoft
application, such as Microsoft Word for Windows.
Spelling REG_SZ keyname
----------------------------
Default: MSPELL32.DLL,MSP32_XX.LEX (In these values, XX is usually the two
letters identifying the language version of Windows NT defined in the
DosKeybCodes subkey, as described in the article "CurrentControlSet\Control
Subkeys Entries".
Specifies the name of an entry in the MS Proofing Tools subkey that defines
filenames for the spelling checker DLL and dictionary. The entries for
Spelling are in this format:
There is no space after the comma. In this format, NNNN is the four-digit
language identifier of the current Windows NT version as defined in the
Control\NLS\Language subkey, and M is the spelling dictionary type.
The Registry path for the key that this entry refers to is the following,
by default:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\MS Proofing Tools
This subkey contains an entry in the following form:
Spelling NNNN,0 REG_SZ DLLfilename, Dictionary filename
Specifies the fully qualified path to the spelling checker DLL and
dictionary. This entry lets Mail use the same dictionary you may already be
using with another Microsoft application, such as Microsoft Word for
Windows. Windows NT does supply a dictionary.
PROVIDERS ENTRIES FOR MAIL
Entries in the Providers subkey for Mail define settings that service
providers use with Microsoft Mail front-end programs. For this release,
there are service providers for Microsoft Mail for PC LANs. Service
providers for other mail systems may be available later. This is the
Registry path for this subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Mail\Providers
Logon REG_SZ DLL name
-------------------------
Default: MSSFS32
Identifies a single DLL that contains the logon and session management code
for your mail system. This value is often, but not necessarily, the same as
the Transport and Name entries. This value is the base name of the DLL,
without the .DLL filename extension, but include a path if the DLL is not
in a directory on the user's path or in the direcotry containing the Mail
executable file.
Name REG_SZ DLL name
------------------------
Default: MSSFS32 PABNSP32
Identifies one or more DLLs that contain functions required to browse
system and personal user lists. One of the values is often, but not
necesarily, the same as the Logon and Transport entries. Enter the base
name of the DLL, without the .DLL filename extension, but include a path if
the DLL is not in a directory on the user's path or in the directory
containing the Mail executable file.
The order of providers in this entry is significant. When Mail is
attempting to resolve ambiguous names typed in a message and finds an exact
match in the first provider in the list, it will not go on to query the
rest. Placing the personal address book provider first can save time in
that process.
SharedFolders REG_SZ DLL name
----------------------------------
Default: MSSFS32 (It is unlikely that any DLL other than MSSFS will have
this functionality.)
Identifies a single DLL that contains functions required to read and write
messages in Microsoft PC Mail shared folders.
Transport REG_SZ DLL name
-----------------------------
Default: MSSFS32
Identifies a single DLL that contains the functions necessary to send and
receive mail on your mail system. It is often, but not necessarily, the
same as the Logon and Name entries. Enter the base name of the DLL, without
the .DLL filename extension, but include a path if the DLL is not in a
directory on the user's path or in the directory containing the Mail
executable file.