Decode FAQ
|
|
|
|
|
Decode FAQ |
||
|
Here are answers to "Frequently Asked Questions" ('FAQ') on decoding Internet Email attachments. This document is oriented towards Decode Shell Extension. However, the information is also of interest to Explorer Extensions or Directory Toolkit users. If you have a question that is not answered here, write support@funduc.com.
Decode Shell Extension CompuServe Users - see CompuServe Example for step-by-step usage instructions. FAQ TOPICS >>Virus Information - Protect Yourself<< Program Information Installation Issues Installing Decode Shell Extension setupdx.exe - I downloaded it but can't find it Readme.txt appears when starting computer Is there a secret fee for use? Is Decode Shell Extension Spyware or Malware? Will Funduc Software Decode Attachments For Me? Decoding Steps "File Not Encoded" Response Decoding Multiple Mails (Concatenate) How Can Correspondents Send 'Plain Text' Messages To Me? Opening Files Cannot Open the Files Sent to Me I Clicked on MIM - Nothing Happened Other Information What Encoding Types are Supported? Tell me more about encoding &decoding Virus Warning - If you are sent a program as an email attachment that you can run, or a document that can execute a macro, your computer can become infected with a virus. Purchase an up-to-date anti-virus software and use it!! Keep your virus definition files current!! [Top] Decode Shell Extension is a freeware internet email attachment decoder for decoding files that contain one or more internet email attachments. The program works from Windows Explorer only. Basic usage is that you first save the complete internet message - text and attachment - to a file on disk. Then use Windows Explorer to navigate to the file you saved, highlight the file, right click, and select 'Decode' from the menu. See Basic Decoding Steps for more information and follow the above links to the examples for more information on actual usage. Decode Shell Extension can decode Base64(MIME), yEnc, BinHex (Mac format), quoted-printable, plain text, XXENCODED, yEnc, and User (table) encoded files. The program can decode multiple attachments within a single message files and multi-part files (already concatenated). Please note: The term "decode" for our program does not refer to tasks such as unlocking password encrypted zips or password protected documents or anything having to do with audio or video 'decoder' software. Our program is for internet email attachments only. [Top] Q: How do I install Decode Shell Extension? I. Review these instructions
II. Download the installer - setupdx.exe
III. Exit All Software
IV. Run setupdx.exe to install Decode Shell Extension There are two ways to do this, both of which involve knowing the location where setupdx.exe was saved in step III above.
[Top] Q: I downloaded setupdx.exe but when I typed Start Menu - Run, setupdx.exe the computer said "... Cannot find setupdx.exe or one of its components...". Where is setupdx.exe? A: We cannot help you directly with this so you'll need to pay better attention to the name of the folder where files are being saved when you download them. AOL & Compuserve users can check in the folders such as c:\America Online 5.0\download\ or perhaps c:\Program Files\America Online 8.0\download\ or perhaps c:\CompuServe 2000\download. If you cannot locate setupdx.exe, perhaps try using the Windows Find Files or Folders utility (Start Menu, Find). If you still cannot locate it, download it again, this time making note of where it is being saved to on your computer. [Top] Q: How did your program get on my computer? I don't want it there. A: A human who had access to your computer installed it. None of our programs install themselves by magic. A human physically needs to take at least two steps... Open up a download link to the installer and Run the installer. We have never created a program that installs itself. Furthermore, you can't 'pick up' any of our programs simply by visiting our www site. Our site simply doesn't work that way. Also, we wish to note that we do not work with any other companies that include Decode Shell Extension with an installer for another product. [Top] Q: Is there is a hidden charge each time I use Decode Shell Extension? A: NO! The program is "contribution-ware". You are free to use it at no cost. We are not associated with AOL or CompuServe. We do not have a secret arrangement with either service to charge you when you download or use the program. If you see fit to send us the $5.00 contribution for email support and automatic email delivery of program updates, great. If not, that's also fine. Addendum: Microsoft Wallet may issue a notice of some kind that the Decode Shell Extension is "unregistered" when you decode files. We do not have a secret arrangement with Microsoft Wallet. By report, if you uncheck the Microsoft Wallet "Always Use..." option the warning will cease. [Top] Q: Is Decode Shell Extension some kind of spyware? A: NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! ABOLUTELY NOT!!! The program does nothing to communicate any information about your computer or surfing behavior back to us. [Top] Q: I downloaded setupdx.exe but nothing happened. I don't see a Decode option in my Windows Explorer right click menu. A: Did you run setupdx.exe to install the program? See the Installation Instructions. [Top] Q: Where is the Decode Shell Extension program item in my Windows Start Menu? A: There isn't one. All functions are via a Folder/File view from Windows Explorer. Highlight a file in Windows Explorer and right click with your mouse. "Decode" will activate Decode Shell Extension on the highlighted file. "Decode" is not present when a folder is highlighted. [Top] Q. How come I can't find the Decode menu in my Email program. A. There won't be one. Decode Shell Extension works from Windows Explorer only. [Top] Q: Your annoying "Readme.txt" about Decode Shell Extension comes up every time I re-start my computer. Make it stop! A: This is not by design! Promise! We would never intentionally harass users like that. We have never seen this ourselves but please try the suggestions below. Uninstall and Reinstall
Remove "Decode Shell Extension Info" from your Windows Startup Folder
Remove setupdx.exe from your Windows Startup Folder
[Top] Q. How do I use Decode Shell Extension to decode a message? A. Follow these steps:
[Top] Q. How can I decode the file to another directory? A. When prompted, click the "Change Name button" and select a different directory. [Top] Q. I can't decode my attachments. What is your general advice? A. Attachments sometimes simply refuse to decode properly. This may not be the fault of your email service. Here are some general tips.
AOL and CompuServe users - If your correspondents follow the above two rules you probably won't even need an external decoding program! The email client of your software will easily decode a plain text message consisting of one attachment.
[Top] Q. I received a mail message that has the attachment spread out across multiple messages. I decoded the first message but the attachment is truncated. If I decode the second the program tells me the file is not encoded. What can I do. A: Decode Shell Extension can handle multipart attachments if they are in a single file. Therefore you must combine the multiple messages into a single file. The process of combining multiple individual files into one single file is called 'concatenating'. Our shareware utilities Directory Toolkit and Explorer Extensions have a built-in concatenate function that can be used to combine separate individual files into a single 'target' file. You can even change the order by which the separate files are added to the single large file. This is important because for the single large file to decode properly, you need to add the separate files in the correct order as per what the person who sent you the messages intended (usually the sender's mailer handles this OK). Let's say you have the saved messages - message1.txt, message2.txt, message3.txt. To decode those you need to get them into one single file and then decode that resulting single file. bigmessage.txt seems as good a name as any for the single file (the file name doesn't matter) so what you would do is concatenate message1.txt, message2.txt, message3.txt to the target file, bigmessage.txt. You must do them in that order! If you use the order, message1.txt - message3.txt - message2.txt -> bigmessage.txt, bigmessage.txt won't decode properly. Directory Toolkit & Explorer Extensions let you control the order visually. If you are technically minded you can also concatenate files manually from the MSDOS command line. Please see the command line help for the 'COPY' command. To do this, go to a MSDOS prompt and type 'copy /?'. An example
manual concatenate of the above would be: Please do not write us for support with MSDOS commands or using the MSDOS shell. If you are baffled by such things and much prefer a nice Windows program, get Directory Toolkit or Explorer Extensions. Note for Outlook Express Users: If you receive a large mail attachment that Outlook or Outlook Express divides into multiple files when saving to disk, the order of the files may not make much sense. The file names &/or section numbers may offer little guidance about what order you should use when concatenating the individual files to a target file. A general convention is that the smallest file is the last section. If you decode and end up with an invalid file you can try experimenting with the order in which the files are concatenated. Or, if you want to avoid getting into guessing randomly, write your correspondent and ask them for advice. Perhaps they can deliver the file using another method. [Top] Q. How can correspondents send 'Plain Text' messages to me? A. We cannot provide support for other email programs so it really is up to your correspondent to study the program help for their email program for instructions on how to do this. If you want to give your correspondents a 'head start', tell them to look in a 'Format' menu of some kind when they are composing a message. Look for a 'Plain Text' choice. That is the one to use. Do not use 'HTML' or 'Rich Text'. [Top] Q: I right clicked on a file and Decode Shell Extension tells me the file is not encoded. What gives? A: First, is it possible that the saved message does not contain a message attachment? If the original message contained only one attachment, perhaps your email software decoded the file already and that is what was saved on your hard disk. Double click on the file and see what happens. If you can open the file, you are all set. If you get a "Click the program you want to use..." type message, then perhaps the file is not encoded but you don't have the correct program installed. See Cannot Open the Files Sent to Me. If Windows give you a "Click the program to use... MIM file" or "Cannot open MIM" type of message, the problem may be an error in the raw message that leads Decode Shell Extension to conclude the message is not encoded. Forwarded messages are a primary culprit when this happens. If you are the third or fourth 'forwardee', by the time you get the message it is such a mess that Decode Shell Extension cannot make sense of what's there. Another cause is an outright error in the message. This is probably what happens with forwarded mail - somewhere along the line a sender made a user error or their email program made a mistake. The solution is to write your correspondent, tell them you could not receive their message properly, and ask them to send again. Tell them that if they are forwarding something they should save the attachment(s) first on their end, create a fresh message to you, and then add the attachment(s) they received. If there were multiple attachments in the original message, tell your correspondent to send you one fresh message per attachment. If the message is not forwarded, make sure your correspondent sends only one attachment per message. For example, if someone has several pictures to send you, have them send the pictures on at a time - one picture per message. Also make sure your correspondent is using a 'Plain Text' message format when they send their attachment. [Top] Q: I right clicked and Decode Shell Extension tells me a file was successfully decoded. But when I double click on the MIM file I get an "Open with" message telling me to click the program to use to open the MIM file. A: Don't double click on the original raw message. You have to locate and click on the file(s) that were created when Decode Shell Extension decoded the original raw message. By default Decode Shell Extension creates these in the same folder as the original message. Press F5 to refresh Windows Explorer and update the file list. The file(s) should be there. [Top] Q: The attachment decoded OK but when I answered "Yes" to Decode Shell Extension's "Would you like to open it?" prompt it gave me a funny message about "Open with... Click the program to use..". Why won't Decode Shell Extension open the file? A: Write your correspondent back and ask them what program you need to have installed on your computer in order to open what it is they sent to you. Decode Shell Extension only decodes the email message. To actually open/view/work with that attachment file you also have a program installed on your computer that can handle that file. The Decode Shell Extension "Would you like to open it?" prompt relies on the Windows "file associations" for your computer. The "Would you like to open it?" prompt does the same thing as if you double clicked on the saved attachment from Windows Explorer. If you get a funny "Open with... Click the program to use.." response that means your computer is not set up to handle the file that was sent to you. For example, if you receive a Quattro Pro spreadsheet, you won't be able to deal with that file if you don't have a software installed on your computer that can open a Quattro Pro spreadsheet. It is possible that, in fact, you have something installed but your Windows installation does not automatically recognize the particular file that was sent to you. Take this up with your correspondent. [Top] Q: When I click on a file I get a message telling me "Cannot find America.exe". A: Technically, what happened is that a program was installed on your computer that modified the "file association" for the file type you are trying to deal with. "America.exe", whatever that is, is now apparently gone from your computer but the disturbance to the file associations remains. The exact source and purpose of "America.exe" is unclear. For the record -- It is definitely not a Funduc Software program. There is no single solution that we are aware of for the 'America.exe' issue. One solution has helped some users is to re-install your zip utility. Our Directory Toolkit is a zip/archive manager. This corrects the file associations with zip archives and gets "amercia.exe" out of the picture. Another solution is to write your correspondent and ask him/her what program you need to deal with what they sent to you. It is possible you already have the necessary program installed. If you clicked on a .gif or .jpg file and got the "Cannot find America.exe" message, try opening the file with your web browser. All modern web browsers can view these image files. Also see your Windows 95/98/NT operating system help for additional instructions and background information concerning "file types", "file associations", and "file extensions". [Top] Q. My email program can't decode a multiple attachment message I received. I have a standard POP3 mail account. Can you help? A. Is the message coming to you in "html" or "rich text" format? Our own experiments indicate that "html text" or "rich text" format messages sent by one email program may not be understood properly when received by another email program. For example, Microsoft's Outlook Express does a fine job handling multi-attachment html text messages sent by someone using Outlook Express. But the receiver may have trouble if they're using another brand of email program. Our decoding software may or may not be of help here. We suggest that you are having ongoing problem with a particular sender, ask them to use "plain text" messages. If that doesn't help, try having them send only one attached file per message. [Top] Q. I can't decode a message from my friend who has WebTV. A: Decode Shell Extension may or may not work. Review the other information in this FAQ and/or take it up w/ the WebTV folks. [Top] Q. Can you fix & decode my attachment for me if I send it to you? A. Do not send us your problem attachment without asking first! We will try to help but please understand that we cannot provide ongoing support for a freeware product. For ongoing support you need to purchase Explorer Extensions or Directory Toolkit. As a registered user, if you have ongoing problems with a particular sender we would help you fix the initial problem rather than continually debug problem attachments. [Top] Q. Why is the decoded file named NONAME.DAT and how do I open it? A. If the program that encoded it did not specify the original file name, Decode will still decode it but will use that default name. When decoding, you can click the Change Name button and use the correct name and extension. If you're not sure what name and extension to use, write the person who sent it to you and ask them. [Top] Q. The decoded file is corrupt. Why? I pasted the message text into Word, then saved it to a file and tried to decode it. A. Word and other editors may add extraneous characters to the file and corrupt the attachment. Instead, use the File/Save menu from your Email program to save the message to a text file. [Top] Q: I received some Word documents and I think they decoded OK but when I try to open the files I set a "WINWORD cannot locate file" type of message. A: Are you using the Decode Shell Extension 'open file' function? If so, do not let Decode Shell Extension launch Word (e.g., click on 'no' when Decode Shell Extension asks 'Would you like to open it'). Instead, open Word separately, use the Word File Open menu to navigate to the file, and open it from within Word. As we have seen with other softwares, under some conditions, some versions of Word have problems with automatic launching and opening of files. [Top] Q. What types of encoding are supported? A. Decode Shell Extension supports Base64(MIME), yEnc, BinHex (Mac format), quoted-printable, plain text, XXENCODED, and User (table) encoded files. Support for yEnc is new to version 4.6. [Top] Q. How can I encode a file and send it to someone else? A. Decode Shell Extension only decodes files. You'll need either Directory Toolkit or Explorer Extensions if you want to create an encoded file. [Top] Q: Please tell me more about encoding & decoding. A: Encoding refers to a general process in which files are "translated" into a form containing only pure text / ASCII printable characters. Encoding schemes were developed to allow binary files such as graphic images, programs, or ZIP archives to be sent across computer networks that support only pure text messages. Internet Email & Usenet newsgroup messages, for example, only permit pure text to be sent. Encoded files are sent as "attachments". In most cases, they are '"attached" to a message that includes some conversational text plus the encoded file(s). Sending a binary file via Email is a two step process - the message sender first sends an encoded attachment and person receiving the message then decodes the attachment back into original form. Many email programs handle the encoding/decoding process automatically. Other mailers, such as the email component of the AOL software, require the message receiver to decode the mail using an external program when the message consists of more than one attachment. For more reading, try a search from your favorite internet search engine for 'RFC 821' and/or see the links below. Note that some of the links below very old so results may vary: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/mime-faq/ http://faqs.cs.uu.nl/na-dir/mail/mime-faq/mime0.html http://www.mindspring.com/~mgrand/mime.html http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1521.txt [Top] |
|
[Back] [Home] |
|
© 1995-2012 Funduc Software. All rights reserved. |
