Outlook Express has been able to check web-based, HTTP e-mail accounts since the very beginning, and that was back in 1996.
See here:
"Internet Explorer 3 was released in August 1996, nearly a year after IE2.
Included with Windows 95OSR2, it was the first major browser to (kind of) support CSS and introduced the world to the now famous Blue E.
Visually the browser was much cleaner, and prettier, than previous versions with a swirled background for the toolbar.
Optional components included Internet Mail and News 1.0 (later called Outlook Express), NetMeeting, ActiveMovie and HTML Layout Control."
(Emphasis added.)
Wiki claims it did NOT have HTML functionality, but that doesn't jive with how I used it back then.
(I was checking my web-based email accounts on it since I first learned how to give it the server settings.
It was a HUGE step up from the stupid Netscape email I had been using.)
So it's nothing new, and certainly a standard (check SourceForge for other HTTP email clients to see what I mean.)
No, this is just MS giving their customers the shaft, which has been SOP for them since day one. =(
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