Windows 7: Windows Live Hotmail login

I have an ongoing thread regarding the login page for messenger so this is related but separate. In an effort to assist my friend I created a hotmail account, just to get into the GUI. I don't use Hotmail or Messenger or any of the Windows Live features other than Windows Live Mail. Having finished with the Hotmail account I closed it on the Hotmail site and deleted it from Live mail. Now everytime I open Live mail I get the Hotmail login screen showing the old email address. I cannot get rid of the login screen, every time it comes up I have to close it. I have now resorted to completely un-installin all the the Windows Live components, Essentials, Login in assistant etc even to the extent of cleaning up the registry. I then re-installed just Windows Live Mail or though I thought. I was very careful to only check the Live mail box but all the other oddments got automatically installed. You cannot just install Live Mail. Anyway thinking that I had a new clean copy of Live Mail I opened it only to have the Login popup appear again. Also my email account was still as before as were all my old emails so the program wasn't fully uninstalled when I thought it was. Short of a complete format of the HD and a new Windows 7 install has anyone any ideas?

Just to clarify ... are you using the current stable release of Live Mail, or are you on the beta?

Thanks for responding,
Answer: The latest stable release downloaded today "wlsetup-web.exe " from wl.dlservice.microsoft.com.

Windows Live Mail can use your Live ID two ways. One way is as a mail account, the other way is as a connection for photo uploading, Messenger, etc. Right now, I'm operating the Beta, so I can't give you particularly specific directions, but basically you should have "logged out" of Live Mail before deleting the account. I think the only way you can stop that prompt now is to sign in with a valid Live ID, and then deliberately log out again to tell the program you are intentionally disconnecting from that part of the service.

Thanks for that. See what you mean. I can resurrect the old account, Hotmail save it for 270 days, and do what you suggest. Will report back later. Am out until later in the day!

Trip delayed so have a bit of time.
Was able to resurrect the Hotmail account but if I sign in then log out I can't gain access to close the account. And if I close the account forst I cant then log out. Bit of a catch 22 I'm afraid.

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I have discovered that when you create a Hotmail Account this automatically creates a Windows Live ID. Hence the registration info is stored outside the hotmail environment. So I thought I would delete the Windows Live ID. I don't need it anyway. But here's a problem when I try to close the WL ID I get the message cannot close as there is a Hotmail address associated with this ID. Why does that not surprise me? So I go back to the Hotmail and close that although it says it will keep my details for 270 days, hoping I suppose that in that time I will re-activate my account! So I go back to the WIN Live ID page and close that account but get the message "Cannot close this account as there is a Hotmail account associated with it, After a period of inactivity the account will be closed". So now I sits and waits! Anyone know what Microsoft regard as a "Period of inactivity" ?

I personally don't, hopefully it's not too long. But you should have been able to log out of the account in Windows Live Mail, and then close the account from your web browser. Logging in to the web site in your browser won't affect Live Mail at all.

But to close the account means logging on again to get access to the "Close Account" option. Then when it's closed you can't log out of course. They are cunning these guys at MS

If you close the account from your web browser, it will automatically log you out. Live Mail, however, will still try to log in if you didn't intentionally log out from there before you deleted the account.