Windows 7: How can I get back Windows Mail?

Sounds like you need to repair WLM via Programs and Features. Highlight "Windows Live Essentials", click "uninstall/change" at the top, and choose "repair" in the next window. All installed components of the Essentials package will be repaired, including Mail.
Also keep in mind that there are two contact lists available but you will only see one of them depending on whether you are "signed-in" or not. I call them my "signed-in" list and my "not signed-in" list.

+1. I've been using Thunderbird for a long time. Very easy to use. Plus there are user written AddOns for it. I'm still on 2.x. I don't feel the need yet for a tabbed email client.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Is there any possible way to get Windows mail in Windows 7?

Apparently it's already on your computer in Win 7, but it's very difficult to activate it. However, you can find it on the Net and download it and install it and that's supposed to be straightforward. I've was thinking about doing just that, but was advised against it because (I'm told) Microsoft is no longer supporting Win Mail. So while it should work, in my particular case I don't want to take any chances with it because I have a huge library of business emails and I don't want to screw things up worse than they already are (with my transfer of emails and folders from Win Mail to WLM). Thus, after looking at possible alternatives, I've decide to live with WLM, inferior though it be.

Please Microsoft, no more changes just for the sake of change. Be conservative. Keep things as pure and simple as possible and don't get rid of what's worked well in the past. And please give us a supported Outlook Express option for the email client in Windows 8.

Follow precisely: Windows Mail (after your system is up to date per Windows Update). However, as MuffinHat points out, MS doesn't support it on Windows 7, so it's always possible a future update will break it. So far the people behind the tutorial have been updating the critical file in the tutorial (msoe.dll) which is why it's important to update your system first before using the updated tutorial version. Also, as MuffinHat said, it is possible to live with WLM. It's just that it has a lot of new, unneeded, features that make it harder to find what you used to do in Windows Mail. Even the fellow who wrote the tutorial (poppa bear) has gone back to WLM.

Thanks...I am trying to live with WLM. It doesn't want to live with me. I can click on new mail for at least two minutes before it opens. Likewise when I try and start a new message I can not bring up the contacts until I click out and start again four or five times. I also have no clue what the hell all the stuff at the top is for...I just want to send and receive email. Windows mail allowed me to do that. I buy a new PC and something less than what I had before. Angers me no end...

Both outlook Express and Windows Mail were discontinued for Security reasons, There were so many exploits that could be used against them and It was felt that a complete re-write would be needed to counter this. As Microsoft had WLM in current development and they were also facing sanctions in some markets for the Bundling of email clients the decision was made to discontinue First OE and Then WM.

There is as has been stated a way to get WM to work in Windows 7, however, the legality of using files from another OS in a new OS is, at best, debatable under the terms of the EULA that everyone agrees to when installing Windows 7 and Vista.

The security concerns are enough to prevent me contemplating this, The Thunderbird option is probably the best option for anyone who cannot get on with WLM and of course it is still actively updated against malware threats

As you know, I'm totally in sympathy with you Barnum. However, after exploring WLM for some time I've managed to simplify it considerably so that the junk on top is reduced to the bare essentials.

I do find that sending mail out is unnecessairly laborious, compared to Win Mail. You have to select your contact, then hit the "to" button again at the bottom, and then hit okay to get it ready to send. I think the contact should be entered on one click and it's readyto send after the text is completed. I think this complication is unnecessary.

I also really miss the ability (that was available in Outlook Express) to put my contacts into separate folders, a very logical capability for anyone involved in any kind of business. You know... a folder for friends, a folder for family, a folder for Barnum and Bailey, a folder for computer people, Theatre people, miscellaneous, etc. etc. It's so obvious a need. How could they miss it?

I often wonder how much these email client designers and their supervisors are paid. Where do they come from? I wonder if they are real users of the things they design. How much experience do they have? I really wonder about these things.

I think you can still do that, except that they are called "categories". (There should be a link called "create a new category" in the contacts window.) The difference is that these groupings are not easily exported/imported, but if you stick with WLM and "sign-in" as well the categories will be saved on the MS website "contacts.live.com". Still, the export/import process will not loose the contacts themselves, just the "grouping" into "categories".