Windows Live Mail 2011 - Force Email, RSS Feeds, etc. to Display as Plain Text

SUMMARY: Tired of viewing ugly e-mail with jarring colors and backgrounds? Or worried about security issues rending HTML? Force all messages viewed in Windows Live Mail 2011 to be rendered as plain text.

For various reasons you may rather display messages such as e-mail viewed in Windows Live Mail 2011 as plain text instead of supporting HTML elements. Perhaps you're afraid of accidentally clicking a phishing link. Maybe you're concerned about a bug in the software when rendering HTML messages causing a program crash or worse. Or maybe you're tired of messages with huge or tiny fonts, garish colors, complex backgrounds, etc.

1. From the main Windows Live Mail 2011 window, click the menu button in the Ribbon.

2. Select "Options", then "Mail" from the pop-up menu.

Accessing Mail Options in Windows Live Mail 2011

(OR, instead of steps 1-2, press ALT+F, O, M.

3. When the "Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Read" tab.

4. Underneath "Reading Messages", check "Read all messages in plain text".

Read messages in Windows Live Mail 2011 in plain text

5. Click "OK" to close the dialog box and save your changes.

This tip was written regarding Windows Live Mail 2011 Build 15.4.3502.0922 running on a Windows Vista system. Features, information, and screenshots for other versions / operating systems may vary.

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