Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook or
Outlook (full name
Microsoft Office Outlook) is a
personal information manager from
Microsoft, and is part of the
Microsoft Office suite.
Although often used mainly as an
e-mail application, it also provides a
calendar, task and contact management, note taking, and a
journal.
It can be used as a
stand-alone application, but can also operate in conjunction with
Microsoft Exchange Server to provide enhanced functions for multiple users in an organization, such as shared mailboxes and calendars, public folders and meeting time allocation.
Versions of Microsoft Outlook include:
*Outlook 97
*Outlook 98
*Outlook 2000 (also known as "Outlook 9")
*Outlook 2002 (also known as "Outlook 10" or "Outlook XP")
*Office Outlook 2003 (also known as "Outlook 11")
*Office Outlook 2007 (in development, also known as "Outlook 12")
Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 could be installed in one of two "flavors":
Internet Mail Only or IMO mode: A lighter application mode with specific emphasis on
POP3 accounts and
IMAP accounts and including a lightweight Fax application.
Corporate Workgroup or CW mode: A full
MAPI client with specific emphasis on
Microsoft Exchange accounts.
Microsoft also released several versions of Outlook for the
Apple Macintosh; however, most mail features were disabled after Office 98. After Office 98,
Entourage replaced Outlook on Macintosh systems, however in
2001, Microsoft released Outlook 2001 for Mac to allow Classic users to access Exchange servers. Over the past few years, Microsoft has improved Entourage to provide Mac users with a
Mac OS X-compatible Exchange client, though it does not have the entire functionality provided by Outlook.
Outlook Express is a slimmed-down e-mail,
newsgroup, and contact management application that Microsoft makes available at no charge, in conjunction with the
Internet Explorer web browser. Other than the confusingly similar name and some shared features (such as the Outlook Bar) it has very little in common with Outlook.
One of Microsoft's goals is for the e-mail client to be easy to use. However, the embedded automation and lack of security features compared to competitors have been repeatedly exploited by malicious
hackers using
e-mail viruses. These typically take the form of an
e-mail attachment which executes on the user's machine and replicates itself by mass-mailing the user's or Exchange server's address list. Examples of such viruses are the
Melissa and
Sobig worms. Other programs have exploited Outlook's
HTML e-mail capabilities to execute malicious code or confirm that e-mail addresses are valid targets for
spam. The notoriety of the worms and other viruses has gained Outlook a reputation as a highly insecure e-mail platform.
Unix programmer Bill Joy has suggested that Outlook is insecure largely because it was written in
C, making it easy to write programs to exploit it. He also believes the widespread use of Outlook is a major contributing factor in the proliferation of spam
[Fortune Magazine interview with Bill Joy]. His views are shared by many leading IT professionals.
As part of its
Trustworthy Computing initiative, Microsoft took corrective steps to fix Outlook's reputation in its latest incarnation, Office Outlook 2003. Among the most publicized security features are that Office Outlook 2003 does not automatically load images in HTML e-mails, and includes a built-in Junk Mail filter
[Microsoft Office 2003 editions comparison]. Service Pack 2 has augmented these features and adds an anti-
Phishing filter
[Microsoft 'Security at Home' website]. The base code is also said to be much more secure.
This most recent release has been well received, and regarded as the primary driver of Office upgrades among business users. Instances of new worms have slowed significantly, however, due to the release of numerous
security updates and Service Packs which have corrected the known vulnerabilities exploited by previous viruses.
Outlook 2007 has been announced and should be available in late 2006/early 2007. A public beta was made available in early June 2006. Features include
[Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 product overview]:
* A to-do bar added to the shell UI that shows a snapshot of the user's upcoming appointments and active tasks for better time and project management.
* Improved calendar views that display the tasks due below each day on the week view and supports overlaying multiple calendars.
* Integrated RSS aggregator
* 'Instant Search' through a context indexer based search engine
* Enhanced integration with
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server* New programmability features [
1]
*
Comparison of e-mail clients*
Comparison of personal information managers*
List of personal information managers*
Outlook Express*
Outlook Redemption*
Outlook Web Access*
The Official Microsoft Outlook site*
Get the (public) beta*
Outlook Developer Portal*
References
