We occasionally get complaints from users that mail they send has two unknown attachments, usually named image001.wmz and image001.gif. When the attachments are viewed, they look like they could be used for bullets.
These are not caused by viruses, trojans, infections or anything nefarious. You do not need to run Detect & Repair. It simply means that you (or the sender) is using Word as the editor and have it configured to add a header, footer or otherwise customized the template. It can also mean you are using a stationery with a white or clear image.
Investigating the image
When you have an unknown image attached to a message, there are two things you can do to investigate. First, right click on the message and choose view Source. Look for images, HTML tags (such as background="cid:image001.gif or an img tag). This can give you an idea where the image is used.
For example, we can tell by looking at this code that the image is used for the background. We can also guess that the theme might have "Arctic" in the file name, based on the title tag.
<body bgcolor="white" background="cid:image001.gif@01CD3469.D1EB1F70" ><img src="cid:image001.gif@01CD3469.D1EB1F70" v:src="cid:image001.gif@01CD3469.D1EB1F70" v:shapes="_x0000_Mail" width="0" height="0" class="shape" style="display:none;width:0;height:0"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <v:background id="_x0000_s1025" o:bwmode="white" o:targetscreensize="1024,768"> <v:fill src="cid:image001.gif@01CD3469.D1EB1F70" o:title="background_arctic" type="frame" /> </v:background></xml><![endif]-->
This piece of HTML is near the top of the source code and confirms the stationery that was used.
<meta name="Microsoft Theme 2.00" content="Arctic 011">
If you want to see the image (in the example above, its a 50x50 white image), open the message and use Save as to save it in HTML format. This will create an HTML file and a matching folder on your hard drive. Look for the image in the matching folder.
How to fix the template
Close Word and Outlook. Locate Normal.dot template file on your file system and rename or delete it. Word will recreate the normal template the next time you open it. (If you have macros in Word, rename the template.)
In Windows 7 or 8, type or paste %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates into the address bar of Windows Explorer to open the Template folder and delete or rename Normal.dot. In Windows XP, it's at %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
Beginning with Outlook 2007, the email template is NormalEmail.dotm. It's stored in %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates too.
You can also fix it by turning off Word as the editor (Outlook 2003 and earlier). This setting is in Tools, Options, Mail Format tab.
Stationery
Small white or clear images may be added by your stationery. To check, go to Options, Mail and click on the Stationery and Fonts button. Are you using a theme?
Outlook Email Template History
Outlook 2003 is the only version that uses normal.dot as the email template. Previous versions of Outlook, when Word is used as the editor, use the email.dot template stored in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICExx\1033. Unfortunately, this causes stability issues (understatement!) and many, many users disable Word as the email editor in the older versions.
In order to stabilize Word as an email editor, Outlook 2003 uses the normal template, the same template Word uses. This helped to reduce crashes but the law of unintended consequences popped up: when certain Word add-ins were installed, users were always asked to save the template. It was confusing because they did not make changes to the template. See Tip 341: Save Normal.dot? for more information about this annoyance.
With the introduction of only one email editor (Word) in Outlook 2007, the email template was renamed NormalEmail.dotm. This template is also used for Outlook 2010 and up.
works!
Is there no fix to this issue. I have tried so many things to get rid of the .wmz file. However no luck. If anyone has found a solution out there. Please share with us.
Did you verify bullets or other elements are not in the template's header or footer?
The only solutions that I can find: (1) Don't use outlook... yea not a solution (2) Only use plain text e-mails... another non-solution (3) Make sure you don't have an image in your signature, or in your word template normal.dot. And yes Outlook can use normal.dot to render text in an outgoing HTML e-mail. But this will only work if you don't attach images, office documents, and/or a lot of other file types, to your e-mail when your using HTML emails. Once an e-mail has a .wmz file in it, if you forward it, it will replicate. This is a behaviour of Outlook. It's trying to make sure the person you're sending to can read/view the attachments you made to an e-mail. I agree it's unacceptable behaviour but I haven't found a way to make outlook stop doing it. Some e-mail servers and some virus programs will filter them on outgoing e-mails but that's not really a solution. On the up side it's not a virus (keep reading though) BUT a virus can be included in these files as they do/can contain scripting. Bottom line, it's a bad behaviour in outlook. I call it a bug and my solution is… Read more »
does the template you are using have a header or footer configured? That will cause the wmz file. It's not to make sure the person can read the mail, its due to elements in the template that are not supported in email.
i use office 2010 and win 2007. facing same .wmz problem. .i.e. wmz files are getting attached to my sent emails. i remaned normalemail file. but problem persist. please help.
My replies/ forwards have the original message to the right of the text instead of below. I created a new signature and this started to occur.
Can't seem to figure out how to use the signature on replies/forwards and have my new signature below and the original e-mail below that ?
Please, all help is appreciated.
Kevin
Did you create the signature in the signature editor or paste in the signature editor - or edit the HTML files the signature uses? It sounds like the signature file is missing some HTML tags.
Is the signature simple text / urls or do you have images or other 'fancy' things in it?