ceml is a free eml / nws file viewer. Neither Windows 7 nor Windows 8 come with a program capable of reading eml or nws files (message files from Microsoft email programs Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail). So users of Windows 7 and Windows 8 needn't download an entire suite of programs in order to read and browse their messages -- they can download this free program instead. This program also works in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

    If the user browses to a directory of eml / nws files, it will show the list of files in a message list along with the message properties such as Received date, Subject, To, From, Newsgroups, Size, References, Message_Id and File name for each file. There is also a column labeled "A" which will show the letter "A" if the message has attachments.

    The user can then select the message in the list and it will display in the preview pane below the message. The preview pane can be disabled via the View menu.

    Columns in the message list can be reordered and clicking on a column header will sort by that column in one direction and clicking again will sort in the other direction. Sorted columns will be prepended with a " ^ " character when sorted ascending and with a " _ " character when sorted descending.

The message view is now filtered.  Many email senders use linked images to track recipients, so linked images are now blocked by default and the user can click the button to enable showing the linked images.  Similarly, dynamic HTML, such as scripting, is also blocked by default.  To enable such dynamic HTML, the user must first go to View | Enable Full HTML and then the checkbox labeled "Full HTML" will be enabled and the user must also check this box to show a message with the HTML unfiltered.

If the message has attachments, then when then user selects the message and it is displayed, a box with the character "A" inside is displayed in the upper left of the displayed message. Clicking on this box will display the list of attachments and the size of each attachment as well as a "Save Attachments" menu item. If the user clicks on the name of an attachment in this list, then the user is prompted to save the attachment in the location the user designates. If the "Save Attachments" menu item is clicked, the user is prompted for the location to save all the attachments. Note that the File menu also includes a "Save Attachments" menu choice. When clicked, the user is then prompted and the attachments are saved to the designated location. This option also saves embedded images as well as attachments, even if the message does not have attachments listed. Also with this option, one can choose to Save Attachments for all messages selected in the list at one time.

The File menu includes Page Setup, Print, and Print Preview features. The program inserts the abbreviated message header (From, To, Subject, Date) at the top of the first page.

    Double clicking the message in the message list will result in the message opening in its own resizable window.

    If one presses the key combination CTRL-F3 (or View | Message Source) the message source will display a separate window.

    The key combination CTRL-F2 (View | Message HTML) will display the HTML source of the message (or the plain text one if there is no HTML).

    NOTE:  If one clicks on a single eml or nws file, one can choose the program with which to open the file.  If one browses to "c:\program files\ceml\ceml.exe" then one can set ceml as the program with which to open the file and then set it as the default program to open eml and nws files.  The command line

"c:\program files\ceml.exe" "%1" 

will also open the file where %1 represents the path to a given eml or nws file.  Note that there is a space between the quoted path and the "%1".