Windows 7 - Windows Live Mail .. question?

Been using XP (OE & Mailwasher) since it came out. Tried Vista on spare computer and didn't like it. Got a new laptop with 7 on it and really like the features. Still very new to me, but still using XP on my main computer. Have ordered a new full computer with 7 on it and "was" getting anxious to get it, but just found out about the mail situation. This WLM, your actually online the whole time you have it open??
Your emails are saved online or to your hard drive???
Boy am I confused, but everything I have read so far here on the forum make it sound so easy. But it doesn't sound like I will be using my MailWasher any more and that's not good.

Just would like someone to give me input.
Thanks to anyone who can ease my mind.

If you have pop3 they are saved to your hard drive

If you have IMAP they are saved online.

Thank you for your answer ... I have POP3 ... so your saying they will be saved in a place as before when I was using OE.
And am I right about being online with WLM 24/7 since I usually keep my mail open constantly??

It will be saved in the same place as OE, if you have POP3

If you leave it open, you can set how often you want to check the mail. It is online while checking.

Windows Live Mail is a "client" program that replaced Outlook Express and is very similar. There is also "Hotmail" which is also referred to as "Windows Live Mail" and requires a login using your Live ID. I believe that is where the confusion comes from. I use WLM "client" to access my email accounts from my ISP. You can have multiple email accounts and access them all from WLM "client".

Jim

WLM does have a few confusing quirks, so it would be a good idea to play around with it before transferring your old emails and contacts. You can initially set it up to leave mail on server while you continue to use your old program. The main quirks are the way contacts and photos are handled. You'll be encouraged to "sign-in" and when you do you wll see your normal "sign-in" contacts which are alwalys stored on the web as well as on your computer; but if you don't sign-in (or are not connected to the internet) you won't see your contacts even though they reside in a database on your PC as well. Instead you will see a different contact list (your "not-signed-in" contacts) which only reside on your PC. There is a new option for emailing photos called "Photo email" which means, if you choose it, you are NOT sending your photos by email. Instead you are sending a thumbnail link to the photos which are kept on a MS server for 30 days and then deleted. Read the help file and play with it. The old functionality is still there but sometimes hard to find when the new "features" get in the way.

To clarify this:

POP3 stores the messages both locally and on server if the option Leave the copy of messages on the server is chosen. This is not synchronized; a message deleted locally is not deleted on server, neither is a message deleted on server deleted from your computer. If the option is not chosen, messages are deleted from the server when Live Mail (or any other client) has read them.

IMAP stores the messages both locally and on the server, doing this in a synchronized way: if the message is deleted locally in Live Mail, it is also deleted from the server, and vice versa.

Kari