Solved Windows Live Mail dictionary problem

If you want to activate the EDIT button in the dictionary tab of WLM, make one of the languages at the bottom default. Close WLM, reopen and EDIT will now work.

I found this workaround worked for me. Hope it helps...

Apparently there's a known bug in the English versions of WLMail: if there are more than about 65 words in the custom dictionary, the Edit button at Options > Spelling doesn't work. The workaround is to locate the custom dictionary file, open it in Notepad and edit it there.

The file lives in %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Proof. Quickest way to get there is to copy this location into the search box that comes up from the Start button. Then click on 'proof' above and it will give you a list of your language codes.

The language code for my British English is lang0809. Double click to open, and when you get a box saying it doesn't know what to do with it, click on the option to select a program from the list of installed programs and then select Notepad.

You can then edit the word list and save on exit.

It just worked perfectly for me! Good luck.

larry17 said:

If you want to activate the EDIT button in the dictionary tab of WLM, make one of the languages at the bottom default. Close WLM, reopen and EDIT will now work.

Click to expand...

Doesn't work for me.

It was already the default, no response to the EDIT button, and setting a new
default made no difference either.

I do have a lot more words in the dictionary than sees the bug that doesn't allow an edit tho.

Mine now doesn't work either.

RodSpeed said:

larry17 said:

If you want to activate the EDIT button in the dictionary tab of WLM, make one of the languages at the bottom default. Close WLM, reopen and EDIT will now work.

Click to expand...

Doesn't work for me.

It was already the default, no response to the EDIT button, and setting a new
default made no difference either.

I do have a lot more words in the dictionary than sees the bug that doesn't allow an edit tho.

Click to expand...

I just checked mine again and it no longer works either. I found that by making some other language the default, it made the edit active again. Setting the original back to what it was, killed the edit button again. So it looks like the only reliable way to edit dictionary in WLM is to do it like 'fatherhowie' suggests above, and edit it in Notebook. Thanks for the heads-up Rod!

Here is the fix for not being able to "edit spelling dictionary".

Once you follow the path given to you by the previous poster to the the "Proof" folder then the "lex***file".


When you double click Lex*** file and choose (open with Notepad) keep the checkmark next to "always open this file with this program".


I tried this having over 80 words in my lex file. I cut them all, saved the file with no words in it. Then closed all the windows. I reopened WLMail (I have version 2009 - don't like 2011) and was able to use the edit feature with my default language.

I then pasted the 80 words I cut back into the Lex*** file saved the file and then closed all the windows again. I then opened WLMail and was able to edit with 80 words in the Lex*** file.


I searched for a registry edit but cannot find one. I think some where along the line the Lex****file gets dissasociated from Notepad.

Telling your system to always open the Lex file with Notepad seems to be the fix. I hope that helps anyone who enjoys WLMail. (only email program I like because it synchs with my online folders without having to use IMAP settings in other email clients).

WLM custom dictionary size limit

The above post didn't work for me. I still cannot place more than 51 words in my lang0409.lex file for the custom dictionary. Has Microsoft fixed this bug yet?

Found WLM custom dictionary - but my mis-spelled word not in it!

Thanks to all of you - esp. t-4-2 - for the useful info in this thread.

1. I found the WLM custom dictionary, via the run/command line, and corrected several other mistakes in the Cust Dic - but the Edit button still does not work, even after I set "English UK" as the Default - and linked Notepad to it...

More importantly/annoyingly:

2. My mis-spelled word is not there! I keep typing martin, when it should have a capital M.
But "martin" is not to be found in either the WLM or Word custom dictionaries, so it does not get flagged as wrong, nor changed. As I tend to (mis-) type my name a lot, this is very annoying!!

Can anyone help, pls? Many thanks, in advance.

(Great site - very useful!)