What is a MHT file?
A MHT file refers to a MIME HTML or MHTML file, an archived webpage containing details like text, graphics, animations, Java applets, and even audio files. MHT files are created usually by browsers like Internet Explorer and Opera when users save the webpage onto their computers. MIME HTML or MHTML are given the extension .MHT to give the shortened version of its name “MHT file”. Files with the extension .MHT basically look like a webpage made using HTML.

Though the MHTML webpage archive format is proposed as a standard, not all internet browsers have direct support for it. Some browsers are able to handle this particular format through third party extensions. And since saving web pages using MHT files is not the same across different browsers, display of items may also vary. As for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the MHTML format using MHT file extensions is supported starting with version 5. Opera browsers meanwhile started supporting MHTML with its version 9. Mozilla’s Firefox meanwhile is not able to directly support reading and writing files with .MHT extensions. A browser extension needs to be installed by the user in order to manage MHTML or MHT files. Other browsers like Konqueror and Safari do not have support for these files. As for Google’s own browser called “Chrome”, one needs to have the latest version of ChromePlus (1.5.2) in order to view and handle MHTML files. Development is ongoing though for Google Chrome to fully support this particular webpage archiving format.

For those using Mac operating systems, they may need to install the Opera browser to be able to handle MHT files. Opening files under Mac OS is basically the same when doing it on Internet Explorer. Users just need to open the Opera browser and choose the “open” option under the File Menu. One just needs to browse the MHT file and the browser will be able to display the archived webpage.