Configuring Outlook 2002 to display all messages as plain text

If like me, you're stuck using Microsoft Outlook XP (AKA Outlook 2002 or Outlook 10) at work, you can reduce your vulnerability to HTML-borne malware by setting it up to display all messages as plain ASCII text.

Unfortunately, doing so requires either a third-party utility or manually adding a value to the Registry. First close Outlook and make a backu of your registry. Then do (this works for Outlook XP SR1 or later):

1. Open regedit.
2. Go to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
3. Create a new Value Name of DWORD type called ReadAsPlain.
4. Setting the DWORD value to 1 will force all messages to be read as plain ASCII, while setting the value to 0 will allow HTML to be rendered.