Browser and email programs compatibility using win 7 os

I recently bought a new HP laptop which has Win7 Home Prem OS installed as well as Win Live Essentials which includes Live Mail. I also have a 3 year old custom made desktop which has Win XP OS and Outlook Express Email program. When i bought the laptop i registered my Roadrunner email account in Live Mail and continued to use the same acct in my desktop OE program. After i did so I stopped receiving most emails in my OE program, but also received very few emails in the Laptop Live Mail program.

I have been using Google Chrome on both computers and as part of that set up a Gmail acct for both my primary email acct...the one in OE and Live Mail. In an effort to try to get all of my email messages from 3 email accts...1.RRunner 2.gmail and 3. yahoo...i set all three up in Live Mail and Gmail.

Without any rhyme or reason i continued to get some email messages in each of the four email programs i had at this point..
1.OE in my XP
2.gmail in both computers
3.live mail in my Win 7 laptop
4.Yahoo mail in both computers

but...didnt get all of my emails in any of the programs.

Im not a computer technician and maybe someone can tell me if there is some priority which automatically occurs when an email message is incoming in determining which email program it will show up in.

Anyway, at this point I decided to buy Win 7 Home Premium for my desktop so both computers would have exactly the same OS. I did that and installed it in my desktop with no problems. Since then i have tried a number of options to figure out how to get all of my email messages into one primary acct and nothing i have tried has really worked.

Having used the simplified OE for so many years I have lost confidence in whether or not i am getting all of my emails at all...anywhere...and have had a lot of instances where emails i was expecting didnt show up in any email acct. I know i have properly added email accts to the various programs because i have tested them extensively to insure their correctness. Still the problem persists.

Recently in stalled Firefox Thunderbird and am thinking about deleting all other email programs to see if that will enable me to get all emails in one program ,but i see that some emails show up in the laptop while others show up in my desktop emails.SHOULDNT THEY ALL SHOW UP IN BOTH COMPUTERS ? IF NOT WHY NOT?

Needless to say I am beyond frustrated by the above and Im sure anyone reading this may be confused and unable to follow the details of what i have done.

I am hoping someone technically knowledgeable can either explain to me how email programs in two separate computers SHOULD WORK , OR LEAD ME TO SOME TECHNICAL REFERENCE SITE WHERE I CAN EDUCATE MYSELF ON THIS

Finally, if anyone can give me suggestions on how they think i can best end up with having both of my computers get all of my emails I would be very grateful.

At this point I am inclined to delete all email programs except either Thunderbird or Gmail and register all three email accts in that single program, as I dont like Win Live Mail very much.

Sorry for such a lengthy email but at this point I am desperate.Thanks for your help.

I think what you need to do to open WLM, right click on each of your accounts one by one, open there Property Sheets and click on the "Advanced" Tab. There under Delivery apply the setting that you want. Then you do the same in your other computer running OE.

Perhaps you should configure to "Leave the copy of the messages on the server" unchecked on the primary computer and checked on the secondary computer. This way you shall get all the messages in the e-Mail Client (WLM or OE) on the primary computer before they get deleted on the server.

Hopefully this has helped.

How are you collecting email? IMAP or POP? There's your clue...

BEARCATJER said:

...SHOULDNT THEY ALL SHOW UP IN BOTH COMPUTERS ? IF NOT WHY NOT?...

...I am hoping someone technically knowledgeable can either explain to me how email programs in two separate computers SHOULD WORK , OR LEAD ME TO SOME TECHNICAL REFERENCE SITE WHERE I CAN EDUCATE MYSELF ON THIS...

When it comes to doing that you would have the same problem with Outlook Express. One "solution" is to set up each account as IMAP. In that case the server becomes the primary place where email is stored and it is only viewed on a PC client when you double click on the message header. At that point that message is downloaded to the IMAP PC but also kept on the server. However you can't use message rules with IMAP.

Another "solution" is to set up the accounts as POP3 on both PCs but be sure to check "leave a copy of messages on server" on the advanced tab of the POP3 account properties.

Another common "solution" is to set up one PC with POP3 as the primary "message storage" PC with the other set up as IMAP just for viewing new messages when away from the primary PC.

You can also do what I do. I have one primary PC for downloading and storing messages via POP3 but I also have IMAP set up on the same PC so that I can view the messages on the server via IMAP and, for those I plan to discard, I can delete and purge them from the server before manually "sending and receiving" into the POP3 account.

Internet Message Access Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Post Office Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And if you have a Hotmail account there is the HTTP protocol and DeltaSync:
Windows Live Mail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DeltaSync - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I guess i owe this forum an apology because i just posted a new message on the same problem i outlined in this thread and had forgotten about this post and that i hadnt replied to it. After getting the suggestiions from all three respondents i went into both of my computers and double and triple checked the various settings and made sure i had checked to leave all emails on the server and still my problems persist. I will wait to see if i receive any further help in the new post i put up a few minutes ago and if not i think i will try using only one email program one one computer and completely deleting all email programs from the second computer to see if i can solve it without uninstalling Win 7 from my desktop and returning to good old XP and Outlook Express.

Sorry i didnt reply to your help earlier. Im very old and I just forgot.

You are forgiven...:)
Thanks for reporting back.

"Im not a computer technician and maybe someone can tell me if there is some priority which automatically occurs when an email message is incoming in determining which email program it will show up in."

It will show up in the first one to download it and delete it from the server. That is the normal action of an email program when set for POP3 access. To keep the message on the server even after downloading you need to check the advanced option in the account properties to "leave a copy on server" or don't use POP3 at all and use IMAP which leaves all messages on the server; in that case the email programs merely let you view what is on the server.