How to view E-Mail internet message headers in Outlook

Outlook offers a way to display the source text of the e-mail or the internet (SMTP) headers to clearly identify the origin of the e-mail. The Internet headers can also be used to analyze server delivery and encoding.

If you want to examine the SPAM status in the message header of an e-mail with Outlook, the section “X-Spam-Flag” with the X-Spam-Score value is of interest, you will notice that the X-Spam status is completely missing in the Internet headers, although these are given by Spamassassin.

View Outlook internet message headers

Open the e-mail and go to File -> Properties.

The X-Spam information is simply truncated by Outlook, if you examine the header with another e-mail client, for example using a webmail application, you’ll find the full unfiltered header. However, Outlook takes the X-Spam-Flag classification into account and moves the message to the Junk E-mail folder if it is received with X-Spam-Flag: YES, as long as the default setting in the Junk E-mail options has not been changed.

Track the entire unfiltered Internet Header

X-Spam header truncated snippet in Outlook:

Authentication results: mta-cu121.middle.org;
	dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=outlook.com header.i=@outlook.com header.b="NDq3pzWF"
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam Score: 0.501
X-Spam Level:
X-Spam Status: No, score=0.501 tagged_above=-999 required=6.2
	tests=[DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1,
	FREEMAIL_FROM=0.001, HTML_MESSAGE=0.001, MIME_HTML_MOSTLY=0.1,
	RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE=-0.0001, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001,
	SUBJ_ALL_CAPS=0.5, TVD_SPACE_RATIO=0.001]
	autolearn=no autolearn_force=no
Received: from mta-cu121.middle.org ([127.0.0.1])
	by localhost (mta-cu121.middle.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024)
	with ESMTP id xiFVOnehSqeY for <john@foo.com>;
	Tue, 10 Jan 2023 15:41:15 +0100 (CET)

  we have noticed in outlook that e-mails are filtered upon received for e-mails marked with the X-Spam flag and if the spam e-mail was sent from an office 365 account, usually from sender domain mail.protection.outlook.com

Internet message headers in new Outlook

An email message internet header provides a list of technical details about the message, such as who sent it. The software used to compose it, and the email servers that it passed through on its way to the recipient. Most of the time, only an administrator will need to view internet headers for a message.

Some senders use spoofing to disguise their email address. By checking the header, you can find out if the email address is different than. It appears, and add it to your blocked senders list.

View message headers in new Outlook

Select More actions button (three dot menu) at the top of the message window and select View > View message details.

Find the sender’s address

Scroll down in the Message details until you find the From field.

Highlight the email address enclosed within < > and right-click to Copy.

Use this email address to block the sender.

How to Enable Outlook Manual Account Setup

Outlook from Microsoft 365 (Office 365) has a simplified Auto Outlook Email Account Setup wizard, the option to manually create an account no longer appears. However, there is a possibility to make the option for outlook manual account setup available anyway.

Outlook Manual Email Account Setup

DisableOffice365SimplifiedAccountCreation

1. Close Outlook if it is already open.
2. Next, open Registry Editor with the Windows+R keys and type regedit and click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Setup
4. Right-click to open menu and click New to select DWORD (32-bit):
5. Rename the new DWORD key with the value : DisableOffice365SimplifiedAccountCreation
6. Double-click the new key to change the value.
7. In the field, enter a value of 1 and click OK.
8. Close Registry Editor and restart Outlook.

It is also possible to activate the Outlook option for manual account setup do perform the REG ADD command.

To do this, open a command prompt with the key combination Windows+Rcmd and click OK.

Insert the following line in the command prompt and press Enter.

REG ADD "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Setup" /v "DisableOffice365SimplifiedAccountCreation" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

Start Outlook and select Manual setup or additional server types.

Outlook do not accept my password

If Outlook do not accept your password and you know you’re using the password for your email account, you might have an email account that requires additional security.

Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Outlook.com, and AOL accounts all use two-factor authentication to help verify that you’re the person trying to access your email account.

To add your email account to Outlook, depending on your provider you might need an app password, also known as an application password. This is a different password than your regular email account password. One way you’ll know you need an app password is if you see the following message: 2-factor authentication is set up for your account. Please sign in using your application password.