Launching FEI Viewer

You can launch the viewer component of Forensic Email Intelligence (FEI) in four ways:

1. Through the Startup Page

When you launch the main FEI application without any command-line arguments, you are greeted with the Startup Page below. Clicking on the Launch Viewer button launches FEI Viewer.

In this mode, FEI Viewer will be launched without loading any emails for examination. You can drag & drop an email on the viewer to examine it:

2. By Opening an Email Message with Forensic Email Intelligence

If you open an EML or MSG file with the Forensic Email Intelligence application, the email will open in FEI Viewer. If Forensic Email Intelligence was already associated with the EML or MSG file extension on your system, then you can simply double-click on the file to open it with FEI Viewer. Otherwise, you can right-click on the file and choose Open with ➫ Forensic Email Intelligence.

Launching Additional Instances of FEI Viewer

When you load a new email into FEI Viewer, you will notice that FEI uses the same FEI Viewer instance. That is, the viewer remains open and its contents are replaced with the new message. This is to support examining one email after another in quick succession without having to open several instances of FEI Viewer.

Having said that, there may be scenarios where you prefer to have multiple instances of FEI Viewer open simultaneously. For instance, when performing a comparative examination of multiple emails side by side. In such cases, holding down the F8 key while opening a new email with FEI Viewer will cause the new email to be opened in a new instance of FEI Viewer.

3. From The Evidence Grid

If you ingested a collection of emails into Forensic Email Intelligence by creating an FEI project, you can launch the project and double-click on an email item to launch it in FEI Viewer. Once the viewer is open, selecting a new item from the Evidence Grid using a single click will load the new item into FEI Viewer. If you close FEI Viewer, you can double-click on an email from the grid to open it again.

In this mode (i.e., Connected Mode), we recommend opening the Evidence Grid in one monitor and FEI Viewer in another, or opening both tools side by side in an extra-wide monitor, so that you can arrange the two tools on your screen without any overlap.

Navigating between Documents

If you are using FEI Viewer in tandem with the Evidence Grid, you can navigate to the previous/next document on the Grid by using the Control then Up Arrow Control Up / Control then Down Arrow Control Down shortcuts while FEI Viewer has focus.

4. As an Email Viewer for Other Forensic Tools

If you are working with a forensic suite and encounter some email data that you would like to examine with FEI, you can use FEI Viewer as an email viewer for your forensic suite. This requires that the forensic suite support opening a file via an external viewer application.