MSGViewer

MSGViewer is a lightweight and portable utility built on the Java platform, that lets you view Microsoft Outlook MSG files in a user-friendly environment. Its main advantage is that it does not require Outlook installed on the PC.

It is suffice to have Java installed on your computer, in order to run MSGViewer immediately. Otherwise, you can save the JNLP file to a USB flash drive or other similar device, in order to run it on any computer with minimum effort.

What's important to keep in mind is that the tool does not add new entries to the Windows Registry, or leave files behind on the hard drive after removal.

The interface of the application is made from a standard window with a plain and simple layout, where you can import MSG files using either the file browser or "drag and drop" method. Plus, you can adjust the font size and fix it, as well as convert the MSG file to MBOX or EML, supported by Unix and Thunderbird, respectively.

Several settings can be made for this tool. For instance, you can modify the date format, language, icon size, log level and proxy host. These parameters mainly cater to advanced users.

MSGViewer uses a moderate quantity of CPU and system memory, has a good response time and works well, without making the OS hang, crash or pop up error dialogs. We have not encountered any issues in our tests. MSGViewer delivers a straightforward solution to viewing MSG files, without the need of Outlook.