You CAN use VISTA Windows Mail in W7

Hi all
a little tip here as I HATE webmail based type of email clients. I was quite happy with Outlook express and Windows mail.

This tip works on both X-86 and x-64 versions.

1) Take ownership of the windows mail folder (it's in program files or program files (x86) depending which version of W7 you are running.

2) delete contents of the folder.

3) copy your old VISTA windows mail folder to the windows mail folder on W7

4) make a shortcut link to winmail.exe

5) set up your accounts like on Vista / Outlook express in XP

6) enjoy.

Cheers

jimbo

Thank you for this!!!

Is there a way that I can import my old e-mails over using this method? If I try to import/export the messages from the file menu it will only let me do it to another application.

If I copy them over to the Windows Mail data in the user AppData/Local folder would that do the trick?

Just an update, yes that works and the storage folder is in the same place as Vista. That was easier than I thought!

....or simply download Windows Live Mail
www.download.live.com

Ok Thanks,but if I remove the Win.lifemail and installed Win.Mail and these dont work,how can I get back the removed Win.LifeMail.

Yeah! I agree. This works great.

I don't like web based email programs either - although they are nice if you need to access your mail from different locations/different computers.

There's also Thunderbird, another nice client (your PC) based and free email program you can use, even if you don't use Firefox. This is what I use on my notebook and I use IE9.

You might consider using MailWasher Pro to manage multiple POP3 and/or IMAP accounts, or MailWasher Free for just one account. This is a great program that sits between your mail servers and your email client (your local PC based email program) that shows all the email from all your accounts, from where you can process your mail on the server. This is important because this means you can delete any spam, and possibly infected attachments before they even have a chance to be downloaded to your machine. Once you have eliminated all the mail you don't want to keep, one click pulls up your email client for a final download to your machine.

Other spamblockers integrate with your PC based email client, and they download all your emails, and potentially malicious attachments to your machine, and then they process it. I feel that's like inviting a stranger into your home, and then asking what he wants.

MW also allows you to report spam automatically to the FTC (if you live in the US) and other reporting services.

So if you need a decent spamblocker too you might consider this. I prefer freeware when possible, but I think the pro version is worth the money if you have multiple accounts to manage.

If you are like me and you get dozens of forum notifications every day, MW is great for "working" your way through them without having to download them to your local machine, then deleting them when done.

Sorry for running this thread off-topic. But security trumps all and blocking spam is important.

Thank you for this trick. It is so nice how we can manipulate files in order to reach a desired result.

Thanks for your advise.
Ramon