You cannot use an MP3 or WMA file as the background sound for an e-mail message in Outlook Express or Windows Mail

When you use Microsoft Outlook Express or Windows Mail for Windows Vista to format an HTML e-mail message together with a Windows Media Audio (WMA) or MP3 background sound, you may receive the following error message: The recipient who reads the MHTML-formatted e-mail message does not hear the sound.

This problem occurs even if the *.wma or *.mp3 file name extensions appear in the Files of type box.

To work around this problem, use a format other than the WMA or MP3 formats for your sound file.

The following table lists the file formats that Outlook Express and Windows Mail for Windows Vista support for background sound.


To create an e-mail message that contains background sound, follow these steps:

1. Create or select a sound file, and then note the location of the sound file.
2. Start Outlook Express or Windows Mail for Windows Vista, point to New on the File menu, and then click Mail Message.
3. On the Format menu, click Rich Text (HTML).
   
   Note: You cannot use the plain text format to run background sound.
4. On the Format menu, point to Background, and then click Sound.
5. Click Browse, and then locate your sound file.
6. In the Files of type box, click the file type for your sound file.
7. Click your file, and then click Open.
8. In the Repeat Settings box, click to select the number of times that you want the sound to play, and then click OK.
9. Your sound is played in the e-mail message. You can return to the Background Sound dialog box if you want to change the file or the settings before you send the e-mail message.
10. Address your e-mail message, and then click Send.

Note To play the sound, the recipient must have one of the following:

• An e-mail program that can read a MHTML-formatted e-mail message.
• A plug-in for the sound format that you selected.

For more information about how to troubleshoot audio problems, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.