Windows 7 - What is "Feeds for U 29", "Popular Gov823", and .....

"Usa.gov Upd 8b3"???


I just downloaded Windows Live Mail. I intend to learn about it in a few days and see if I wish to use it. However, when typing "Windows Live Mail" into Search so that I could quickly add a shortcut to the desktop, I noticed the above three folders in the search results. I went to their directory location, and they were subfolders that were created when I downloaded Windows Live Mail.

Tried to look them up online but I cannot find anything on them. What are they?

Theyre probably emails and it sounds like they are spam ones so Id check your spam folder in WLM.

Thank you for your reply, but I don't see how they could be emails. I haven't associated any email account with Windows Live Mail yet. I only have one email account at the moment, my gmail account, and it is not associated with the WLM software. I have a Windows Live ID, but I don't have Windows Messenger set to load at Startup and I have its service set Manual--it does not start when I open Windows Live Mail. I only add that to exclude the possibility that somehow Windows Messenger was synchronizing with WLM and automatically associating my ID, which is based off of my gmail account, with WLM. If it had, I would not have been happy with WLM having such authority out-of-the-box, so to say, but it does not seem to, which is good.


Let me clarify, I downloaded wlsetup-web.exe, from the Windows Live Essentials page by way of Windows Update as an optional download on the 27th of December in 2009--I had just built this computer and installed the OS. I didn't mean to say that I had just downloaded WLM, I meant to say that I had just run WLM for the first time. All of the folders from "Windows Live Mail" onward in the path:

C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Your Feeds\Feeds for U 29

were created only 14 hours ago, at the moment I first executed the Windows Live Mail program. The "Popular Gov823" folder and the "Usa.gov Upd 8b3" folder are subfolders within the "Feeds for U 29" folder.

I assume they are meant to be examples to demonstrate WLM's ability to aggregate RSS feeds and display them. In Windows Live Mail, under [Your feeds >> Feeds for United States], you will find the associated descriptors for the folders. They are "Popular Government Questions from USA.gov" and "USA.gov Updates: News and Features".

I don't want Microsoft Live Mail, if I should decide to associate my email accounts with its software, to automatically subscribe me to .gov feeds. Next thing you know, my email will be filled with .gov propagandistic spam. I suppose now what I really want to know is, if I delete these folders and then associate an email, will WLM recreate those feeds folders and auto-subscribe me to them? If so, I don't want to use WLM; if not, then I am willing to give it a try.

On the other hand, I will assume--otherwise its time to let paranoia have its day--other users of WLM have these feeds folders and can tell me if auto-subscription to the .gov feeds do happen, as well as if it has lead to any spamming of their email accounts.

I have never used a desktop email client before, so, if my concerns above are ignorant, please take a moment to enlighten me.

Those are actually rss feeds. If you click on the rss feed menu on the left you should see some entries. MWLM does come with some feeds but I dont recognise those.

Possibly MWLM comes with sample RSS feeds that Microsoft might assume would be of interest to the client based on the location from which the client originally downloads Windows Live Essentials. So, with you being in the U.K., you might have received a slightly different version of MWLM. I mean, why would Microsoft assume you might want RSS feeds to the United States Government? Thing is, they shouldn't assume I would want them either.

I checked the feeds, but there are no entries yet in the folders. I assume they are empty because I haven't given MWLM any control with regards to my email or any online activities. But again, I don't know enough about MWLM to be certain. I imagine if I associated an email with it, then I would begin to get those feeds as well, unless I stipulated otherwise.

I will simply delete the feed entries and see if they are created again afterwards. If so, I will look to see if I can shut down the feed capabilities of MWLM, either through its UI or the registry. If that is impossible, I will just remove MWLM from my system.