Windows 7: WLM Photo Mail

This happened to me the other day and I had a heck of time finding the solution. Here's is what happened...

I used my right-click to sendto Mail Recipient. I was prompted to send it Photo Mail. I didn't want to see that message anymore and promptly clicked NO. Problem is I moved too fast and chose Photo Mail. From there on, any image I wanted to attach to an new email, no matter how, it would appear embedded in the email.

Finally the solution: It's not easy to find and it should be a part of the Properties and Settings in Widnows Live Mail but it's not. You have to go into the registry to fix this. Here is how.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\mail
On the right side look for Publish Photos. The DWORD value is 0 (zero) by default but you will find it to be the number "1". Simply change the number 1 to 0 and you're back in buiness.

I know this must have happened to someone as well, maybe in different manner.

Thanks for the info.

I just read the help web link for WLM with respect to photos. It appears the photo is always visible in the body of the email except that a "photo email" contains a thumbnail link to the full size photo which Microsoft saves on it's servers. In other words what's new is that the photo is not actually emailed, only the thumbnail link. The recipient must click on the link to see or download and save the full size photo. You control the visible size of the thumbnail through the format controls.

If you don't choose "photo email" the full size photo is embedded in the body and appears as a savable attachment, as it has been all along in Windows Mail.

After reading the following I'm not sure what the registry change is supposed to do:
How do I Disable Photo Email in Windows Live Mail Desktop

If you are new to using the Registry editor then here is how it works. Open the Start Menu, type regedit into the search field and press Enter. You will now see the Registry window. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and click the + sign (expands the directory/Hive). Next click the + sign next to Software--continue doing this until you are at Mail. Click directly on the Mail Key, the right side of your Registry window will lots of information. Scroll down until you see Publish Folders. Right click on Public Folders and change the DWORD value from 1 to 0. Press OK and restart the computer. From now on you can attach images without them automatically becoming embedded in the email.

In my case I had never made the choice "don't ask again", yet the registry setting was at "1". By changing it to "0" I elimiated the dialog box asking if I want to send a photo email. (Thanks again for clueing us in about the registry.) However even though the email file is only shown as an attachment when the email is in draft form it is embeded in the text area after being sent (just as it was in Windows Mail). What happens differently when you choose to allow "Publish" by setting the registry to "1" is you are given the dialog box each time so you can choose between the following:

1) Photo email = Put image on MS server and embed thumbnail link to it in the text portion of the email.

2) Not Photo email = Attach the full file to the email sending it to the recipient as an attachment which is also embeded below the text when viewing emails in html format.

So it looks like to Microsoft "Publish" means put the full sized image on their servers and the registry setting of "1" means allow the publish option. But if you choose "photo email" and "don't ask again" it will always default to the photo email (a.k.a. publish) option.

The reason I said I was confused about what the registry change was supposed to do was because of what Joe G. said in his question in the link I provided above. He set the registry to "0" yet when he pasted a picture in the email he saw the Photo formatting options and thought he was sending a "Photo" email. He actually was not since the picture was embedded in the text as an ordinary attachment and was not going to be sent to MS servers nor was there any thumbnail link. It just looked like a "Photo" email in draft form. It actually was an attachment with photo-style formatting options. So if we think "Photo email" = "On MS Servers with Thumbnail link" that should avoid the confusion.

Edit: See Additional Info about the registry "fix" here: Sending Pictures

The easiest solution is to choose Format, Plain Text in the Toolbar of the new Message. You won't see a photo embeded in the body of the email, nor will your recipient receive the email with the photo in the body of the email.

Once the Registry is Modified to 0, you're all set. Formatting on the Toolbar to choose Rich (HTML) or Plain Text has been around since Outlook Express and is very convenient for corresponding to people who work with companies or governments agencies. Often times when you embed an hyper-text into a word or phrase it is lost because the recipient has chosen to receive "all" mail in plain text or their organization may allow common and benign attachments such as .jpg .png .doc .pdf etc, etc.

I use it often when I am not certain if all the clients I send newsletters to are using Plain Text or Rich Text. In Windows Live Mail one can choose to Read in Plain Text Only.