Visual C++ - Send email using Hotmail, Outlook.com, Office 365¶

App Password and SmtpClientAuthenticationDisabled¶

If your account enabled two-factor authentication, you cannot login your account by normal user authentication, you should create an App Passwords and use this App Password instead of the user password.

You should also check if authenticated client SMTP submission (SMTP AUTH) is enabled:

Enable or disable authenticated client SMTP submission (SMTP AUTH) in Exchange Online.

Last update: Microsoft has disabled App password, you have to switch to Hotmail SMTP OAUTH and Office365 SMTP/EWS/Ms Graph API OAUTH. If you don’t want to change your code, you can have a try with EA Oauth Service.

Installation¶

EASendMail is a SMTP component which supports all operations of SMTP/ESMTP protocols (RFC 821, RFC 822, RFC 2554). Before you can use the following example codes, you should download the EASendMail Installer and install it on your machine at first.

Add reference¶

To use EASendMail SMTP ActiveX Object in your C++ project, the first step is “Add header files of EASendMail to your project”. Please go to C:\Program Files\EASendMail\Include\tlh or C:\Program Files (x86)\EASendMail\Include\tlh folder, find easendmailobj.tlh and easendmailobj.tli, and then copy these files to your project folder.

C++ - Send email using Hotmail, Outlook.com, Office 365 - example¶

The following example codes demonstrate sending email using Hotmail, Outlook, Office365 SMTP server. In order to run it correctly, please change SMTP server, user, password, sender, recipient value to yours.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <tchar.h>
#include <Windows.h>

#include "EASendMailObj.tlh"
using namespace EASendMailObjLib;

const int ConnectNormal = 0;
const int ConnectSSLAuto = 1;
const int ConnectSTARTTLS = 2;
const int ConnectDirectSSL = 3;
const int ConnectTryTLS = 4;

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    ::CoInitialize(NULL);

    IMailPtr oSmtp = NULL;
    oSmtp.CreateInstance(__uuidof(EASendMailObjLib::Mail));
    oSmtp->LicenseCode = _T("TryIt");

    // Set your hotmail/outlook/office 365 email address
    oSmtp->FromAddr = _T("liveid@hotmail.com");

    // Add recipient email address
    oSmtp->AddRecipientEx(_T("support@emailarchitect.net"), 0);

    // Set email subject
    oSmtp->Subject = _T("simple email from Visual C++ with hotmail account");

    // Set email body
    oSmtp->BodyText = _T("this is a test email sent from Visual C++ project with hotmail");

    // Hotmail/Outlook/Office365 SMTP server address
    oSmtp->ServerAddr = _T("smtp.office365.com");

    // Hotmail user authentication should use your
    // Hotmail email address as the user name.
    oSmtp->UserName = _T("liveid@hotmail.com");

    // If you got authentication error, try to create an app password instead of your user password.
    // https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/using-app-passwords-with-apps-that-don-t-support-two-step-verification-5896ed9b-4263-e681-128a-a6f2979a7944
    oSmtp->Password = _T("your password or app password");

    // set 587 port
    oSmtp->ServerPort = 587;

    // detect SSL/TLS automatically.
    oSmtp->ConnectType = ConnectSSLAuto;

    _tprintf(_T("Start to send email via Hotmail account ...\r\n"));

    if(oSmtp->SendMail() == 0)
    {
        _tprintf(_T("email was sent successfully!\r\n"));
    }
    else
    {
        _tprintf(_T("failed to send email with the following error: %s\r\n"),
            (const TCHAR*)oSmtp->GetLastErrDescription());
    }

    return 0;
}

Hotmail SMTP OAUTH¶

If your account enabled two-factor authentication, you cannot login your account by normal user authentication, you should use SMTP OAUTH or App Password.

Microsoft Live SMTP servers (Hotmail, Oultook personal account) have been extended to support authorization via the industry-standard OAuth 2.0 protocol. Using OAUTH protocol, user can do authentication by Microsoft Web OAuth instead of inputting user and password directly in application. This way is more secure, but a little bit complex.

• Send email from Hotmail/Outlook/Live using user interaction OAuth

Or you can generate App Passwords and use this app password instead of your user password.

Office365 SMTP/EWS/Ms Graph API OAUTH¶

If your account enabled two-factor authentication, you cannot login your account by normal user authentication, you should use SMTP/EWS OAUTH or App Password.

Microsoft Office365 SMTP/EWS/Ms Graph API servers have been extended to support authorization via the industry-standard OAuth 2.0 protocol. Using OAUTH protocol, user can do authentication by Microsoft Web OAuth instead of inputting user and password directly in application. This way is more secure, but a little bit complex.

• Send email from Office365 using user interaction OAuth
• Send email from Office365 in background service

Or you can generate App Passwords and use this app password instead of your user password.

TLS 1.2 protocol¶

TLS is the successor of SSL, more and more SMTP servers require TLS 1.2 encryption now.

If your operating system is Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 2003/2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2, you need to enable TLS 1.2 protocol in your operating system like this:

Enable TLS 1.2 on Windows XP/Vista/7/10/Windows 2008/2008 R2/2012

32bit/x64 ActiveX DLL¶

Seperate builds of run-time dll for 32 and x64 platform

Distribution¶

• Standard EXE

  For VB6, C++, Delphi or other standard exe application, you can distribute EASendMailObj.dll with your application to target machine without COM-registration and installer. To learn more detail, please have a look at Registration-free COM with Manifest File.

• Script

  For ASP, VBScript, VBA, MS SQL Stored Procedure, you need to install EASendMail on target machine by EASendMail installer, both 32bit/x64 DLL are installed and registered.