Is it usable Outlook 2003 today?

[Sergiaws]

I use Office 2003 on my machine, and I want to know if can we still use outlook 2003 for seeing and receibing emails, and if not, with what email providers can we use outlook 2003 such as gmail, hotmail, protonmail. I tried with a gmail account and it don't work.

[Dave-H]

There is an increasing problem with the compatibility of older e-mail clients with modern systems due to increased security restrictions.
As a diehard Eudora user, I know that all too well!
The most obvious one is that many e-mail providers now mandate at least TLS v1.2 support to interact with their servers.
If Outlook 2003 doesn't support TLS v1.2 that will be an immediate show-stopper with many providers.
The other issue is that providers will only support older clients if an "app specific password" is used, which has to be specially generated for the program.
This is used on the client login instead of the normal password that you would use to login to webmail.
As an example, the option for Yahoo Mail is on the account security setting page.
I know Gmail has a similar option, but I have no experience with Gmail I'm afraid.
I think on Gmail you have to do something to enable the use of legacy clients too.

[Mr.Scienceman2000]

You need enable login to insecure applications or create app password like showed here . I recommend try first mentioned before seperate password since that may not work. Then during outlook setup select IMAP and do steps here to configure traffic. 

Those step should work. Try tls first if not try ssl

[Mr.Scienceman2000]

I got outlook 2002 but config should look like that. Replace mattimeikalainen (fake email I use on examples) with yours, then for advanced settings set incoming port to 993 and check force tls/ssl and incoming port to 465 (if ssl) and you should be able connect

Edited January 19, 2021 by Mr.Scienceman2000

[Dave-H]

Thanks, good to hear that from someone who actually uses Gmail!

[Mr.Scienceman2000]

Did you got it work? Also should install internet explorer 8 and use pos ready update trick to install TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 support. You can download update needed from Windows update catalog. It is called Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer 8 for WES09 and POSReady 2009 (KB4316682). Just click download and download one for your language. This is needed due Gmail cannot verify password using ie6 and tls. It says site cannot be viewed otherwise. You need do that auth step too and then Outlook should log you in. Also you may need update  root certifcates and have latest updates to outlook 2003

Edited January 21, 2021 by Mr.Scienceman2000

[Sergiaws]

I don't know exactly where can I get the certificates. Outlook 2003 with gmail still don't work, so I am thinking on importing my gmail account to another service. Moreover, it even don't work in Windows 8.1 which must have good tls support. In Windows XP, I installed IE 8 and the update which you provided me, but it still don't work. My office 2003 in both OSes has the SP3 but not more updates because I really don't know where can I get it. The language of my Office version is Spanish. Thanks for replying!

[Dave-H]

Have you tried generating a special password for Outlook 2003 in Gmail?
In my experience older clients will now no longer work unless you do that, even if they do support TLS v1.2.
I'm afraid I've only done it with Yahoo, but I know there is a similar process with Gmail.
If you go to Gmail webmail I expect it will be somewhere in your account settings.

[Mr.Scienceman2000]

On 1/24/2021 at 5:10 PM, Sergiaws said:

I don't know exactly where can I get the certificates. Outlook 2003 with gmail still don't work, so I am thinking on importing my gmail account to another service. Moreover, it even don't work in Windows 8.1 which must have good tls support. In Windows XP, I installed IE 8 and the update which you provided me, but it still don't work. My office 2003 in both OSes has the SP3 but not more updates because I really don't know where can I get it. The language of my Office version is Spanish. Thanks for replying!

What error did it throw to you?

[Mr.Scienceman2000]

Ok. Seems things have changed on gmail. Old way no longer works

On 1/25/2021 at 12:37 AM, Dave-H said:

Have you tried generating a special password for Outlook 2003 in Gmail?

this mehtod will work. I just tested. To setup app password (I assume you got 2fa enabled go to account settings>security>application passwords. On pic proof it works. Cencored my name and email address for obvious reason but can see sent with attachment.

here what you need configure imap (incoming mail address imap.gmail.com port 993) and smpt (outgoing mail address smtp.gmail.com port 465). TLS (port 587) wont work anymore for outgoing mail so you need use ssl port.

I know pics are finnish but I got finnish Office XP installed. If you got any problems let me know

[Mr.Scienceman2000]

One more thing to note. If you send message using SSL SMTP port every sent message will have warning that has been sent "insecurely". It works but receiver sees that warning

[InterLinked]

On 1/19/2021 at 7:12 AM, Sergiaws said:

I use Office 2003 on my machine, and I want to know if can we still use outlook 2003 for seeing and receibing emails, and if not, with what email providers can we use outlook 2003 such as gmail, hotmail, protonmail. I tried with a gmail account and it don't work.

Why Office 2003? Office 2010 is the most superior version (in my opinion, of course).

I used to be a diehard Outlook fan, but I learned the hard way over time that it, quite frankly, sucks as a mail program. Every version of Outlook does, it's a chronic Microsoft problem. They don't know how email works. It's so broken that I eventually just gave up. The workarounds are poor and insufficient.

I use the excellent MailNews from Roytam1, a fork of Interlink, which is a Thunderbird based client. Not to say it's perfect, I have many gripes with it, but at least it works.

I used Outlook for non-email stuff as Exchange is still awesome - I use it for calendar, contacts, tasks, and journal, etc. but just not for email.

Bit of a split reality, but what can I do about it??

 

Also, it seems G-Suite will stop supporting password sign on this year without OAuth for organizational use that is not grandfathered in. MailNews supports OAuth but some clients don't. It's getting hostile out there, folks...