Get Explorer preview for .eml files in Windows 7

Is there an application or plug-in that allows viewing .eml E-Mail dumps (that may contain HTML and attachments) in Windows 7's preview pane?

I'm aware of the possibility of adding the file type in the registry but that will give only a plain-text view of the files, not a parsed view.

HTML viewing is a must for what I need, attachments are optional.

Is there some top-notch E-Mail client that introduces this functionality?

Is there a generic way of doing this?

Solution 1:

On my Vista x32 the preview of .eml files works fine in Windows Explorer.

In my case, this may be because the .eml file-type is associated with Thunderbird version 2.

If the Preview pane doesn't show for your folder, you will have to customize its type.

If you are using Windows 64-bit and have installed Thunderbird 32-bit, then you should know that you have two versions of Explorer : 32-bit and 64-bit. By default, you use of course the 64-bit version, while Thunderbird 32-bit has installed its handler into the 32-bit version of Explorer. If you cannot find a 64-bit version of Thunderbird, the 32-bit Explorer can be invoked by the following :

%Systemroot%\SysWOW64\explorer.exe /separate

If the Thunderbird installation worked correctly, you may find that it can display .eml files.

Solution 2:

I don't know about a plug in, but have a look at this software

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Email_Tools/Misc__Mail_Tools/EML_Viewer.html