File Extension .Msg

Files with an MSG file extension are basically “Message” files that are created and/or generated and saved by Microsoft Outlook – an email program for use by the Windows operating systems. MSG files then are actual email messages that were saved in a file with an MSG file extension that can be read by the MS Outlook application. These files are actually saved as document files in an MSG file extension so this file can be opened and read by MS Word, MS Excel and other Microsoft applications in the Microsoft Office Suite.

An MSG file could contain important message data like sender, recipient, attachment/s, message’s body, and many more. Some parts of an MSG file can be encoded in binary while other parts can be encoded in ASCII. MSG files can also be sent over the internet that allows a recipient to download and open it with the appropriate email application.

When a user uses Microsoft Outlook to send an email message, the application will automatically generate a copy of the sent message in a file with an MSG file extension. These files will be saved in the computer’s hard drive and uninstalling Microsoft Outlook will not remove these files.

MSG files can be directly opened using a regular text editor but because it is encoded in both binary and ASCII codes, it may not be easy to read and understand. There may be several email applications though built and customized to read MSG files. These applications may also be ordinary third party email programs that can browse through MSG files saved in a hard drive. These programs are as follows: