No clue on how to get Windows Mail into WLM

I've tried so many different methods that have not worked, but the bottom line is that I only have a handful of messages on WLM, all for today, whereas on my Vista Windows Mail I have hundreds of emails that go back to 2011. I really need those emails,

And I can find no method for exporting/importing my contacts.

When I set up the Windows 7 desktop, one of the things that seemed really simple was setting up WLM. I had already set up my Verizon mail seperately, and it seemed like all the fields in WLM were populated with the correct info, so I was done in just a few mouse clicks.

Then I noticed that my Windows Live mail only contained the Verizon mail that had been received that day, and that I had no contacts.

One of the confusing things to me is whether I actually have a Microsoft account, or not. Or NEED one. I dunno. I certainly don't remember specifically creating one, yet I do have WLM on the W7 PC, and it is working. It's just not working properly.

I have gone onto the Vista PC, Windows mail and selected export and created an .iaf file which I copied to an empty folder on an external drive which I then connected to the W7 and tried to import into WLM. It said there were no messages in the folder. In Vista I then navigated a folder I had to unhide - somewhere in C:\users\(user name)\appdata\local\microsoft\Windows Mail if I remember correctly - copied that to the external drive, went to WLM in attempted to import that folder. That sort of worked in that I at least got 2 days worth of msgs from Vista's Windows Mail into WLM, but there's a couple of hundred msgs that never made it.

I then deleted the mail account in WLM and attempted to export/import the mail settings from WM to WLM, and apparently got the WLM email re-setup, but I have only a few msgs, all from today.

I then tried to set up a Microsoft account, in case I wasn't already set up. Thay ultimately ended on a 'Microsoft account is unavailable. Microsoft account is unavailable from this site, so you can't sign in or sign up. The site may be experiencing problems.

I am befuddled.

Kaktussoft said:

For the contacts... just put them in C:\Users\<windows logon name>\Contacts on new machine and grep them from C:\Users\<windows logon name>\Contacts on old machine

I see you actually answered my followup question before I asked it..., but I don't follow you... What does 'grep them them from c:\users\...' mean? I copied the Contacts file from the old PC to the new one, but when I click on Contacts on the botton left of the WLM screen I get a msg 'You have no contacts. To see your contacts from Windows Live sign on with your Windows Live ID, and there is a clickable sign in link. I don't know what my Windows Live ID is, or if I even have one. I did ask previously if I needed one, and I was beginning to think I didn't, but now....?

Kaktussoft said:

new pc C:\Users\<your windows logon name>\Contacts now has a lot of files? Click on some of them. Are they contact info?

Yes, contacts seem to all be in that file. I just don't see them in WLM.