Windows 7: Windows Mail

There might be some things I missed in the many over 1,200 comments that helped others or that I changed based on my testing.

I am willing to take and incorporate feedback on the instructions I wrote after a reader runs through them and experiences a "problem" that was previously resolved or new ones are presented.

Please use private messaging for feedback so the thread doesn't get cluttered with unimportant chatter. Things like "I'd like to see XYZ changed to GHI" are better discussed offline. All feedback will be considered, but WinMail is gone and going further away. The intent was to make it easier to make WinMail work for now. I'll include your feedback on the thread if a fix is made available. Thanks!

There are some things that are beyond fixing - ie hacking CBS.

Peace!

Yippie!!! And at 1st launch it didn't even prompt for default, it was set at default already.

Thank you endeavor!! Thank you Slartybart!! I'm so excited I don't know what more to say other than you two "Rock"!! Great job!!

Awesome grits, I'm really proud of you! <very big smile>

fyi, Slarty and I today deleted alot of our posts from the last few days to clean up the back and forth chatter betwen us as we worked things out, and so just in case you see posts missing, that's why.

The new process will work for more people than it even did before.

You did a good job, again, really really proud of you!

.

Slarty the entry "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Mail\.... you've put in your .bat pointing for all the changes to take place now takes care of what we wanted back when EX-Brit brought up the issue in reply to me that's below it, and that is, with the EKmantis bat what if someone had their installation of a partition other than C:\ it was would miss it, I replied to him below that suggesting a change, and by golly you have it done within your bat, thanks, it covers the problem nicely over what EKMantis had it as hard linked, nice job.

I also wanted to note that on my 7 version of Pro or Ultimate setup 'After' the User Account Control and the likes are disabled, then I can just double click or right click and run as administrator on the .bat from anywhere and it works through fine, but after testing on a fresh install or non-modified 7 setup like grits has with User Control On and all the other annoying supposed security things on, I've found you can Not just double click on the bat and have it work, nor can you just right click on the bat and run as Administrator it won't work either; when EKMantis first supplied his bat I may have suggested that it could, but after recently testing on a fresh install I realized you cannot and it's only after modifications, and so therefore to cover all setups it needs to be that you get them into a real "Administrator" cmd prompt First and then proceed then there will be success in all setups, and I see you have done that already in your tut, nice job.

grits,

Glad to be of service. You were a big help too. A user having difficulty provides more information than someone who successfully follows a tutorial.
Peace!

   Quote: Originally Posted by grits

Yippie!!! And at 1st launch it didn't even prompt for default, it was set at default already.

Thank you endeavor!! Thank you Slartybart!! I'm so excited I don't know what more to say other than you two "Rock"!! Great job!!

Slartybart,

I tested your new process on a fresh Windows 7 install to make sure that the test was equal to any others new setup.

It worked just flawless!

The entire process to set up WinMail really only takes a few minutes.

I actually made 4 screenshots and wanted to post it here just in case it could be a help for others, to see it in action.

Here's the 4 images in this one large Screenshot; you'll need to open it full in a new window to see original size.

Screenshot

endeavor,

Yep, it was easier and safer for me to test using the variables, plus it's the right thing to do.

   Quote: Originally Posted by endeavor

Slarty the entry "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Mail\.... you've put in your .bat .....takes care of what we wanted back when EX-Brit brought up the issue in reply to me.....

Most users coming here will not have pimped their computers, so the instructions had to be vanilla. It's more straightforward anyway - you have custom settings or you don't.... works either way.

   Quote: Originally Posted by endeavor

..... but after testing on a fresh install or non-modified 7 setup like grits has with User Control On and all the other annoying supposed security things on, I've found you can Not just double click on the bat and have it work, nor can you just right click on the bat and run as Administrator it won't work either;.....
..... real "Administrator" cmd prompt First and then proceed then there will be success in all setups, and I see you have done that already in your tut, nice job.

You put a lot of effort into making the re-write better. I incorporated some of your feedback into it, I excluded some because your suggestion didn't work on my machine (no tweaks), other things are considered a contingency.

So far everyone who has tried it had no problems..... but that's only a few. I'll be curious to see how the tutorial works for someone who upgraded from Vista or is still on Windows 7 w/o SP1.

Peace!

I've said this before and I'd like to say it again...

For myself, and I'm sure many others, I will use WinMail till the year 2020+ or whenever I switch to a new OS...

I love using WinMail ! ...and I love using the Newsgroup aspect of it too, aamof, here's a Screenshot of my WM gui shown after it's fully setup, and opened to a random Newsgroup post. Or here's a Screenshot of just the local folders toolbar Outbox gui.

The fact that I don't need to install yet another separate email client on 7, but just activate one that's already there, appeals to me, not to mention the fact that I've used Outlook Express since it was developed back in what.. 1996? ...I'm just used to it, heck I still have the same wife too <g>

I had earlier PM'd endeavor about losing my WM after my post #1232 & he suggested I post instead of PM but it was a quick fix after I deleted the desktop ini that I still had from my earlier try of either the EKMantis batch or the original page 1 tutorial. At least for now I have it, if I lose it again & IF I can remember my steps, I will post here.

In the meantime though, I'm not going to use it because in my excitement of finally getting it activated I lost my head & set up the wrong email account (I have 2 with similar addresses) so now have to search help somewhere to see if I can have 2 different addy's in one WM account or install some other email client for 2nd one. I'm also having an issue with IE9 being sooo slow & want to TRY to resolve it before I accumulate any more emails into WM.

Yes I had asked you to post on the forum so that others could learn from any resolves, of which they would not see if if it was only PM.

Your PM just said "I lost WM" ...now you understand that in itself is not enough detail really to determine anything, we always need more thorough details surrounding what happened.
About that setting to leave mail on the server, well MS default is set to not leave them on server which I personally prefer it that way, but yes in some cases there may be reasons you'd want to change it, do what's best for you. Perhaps going forward until you get your email situation setup the way you want just change that setting for what's best for you.

Now about why you lost WinMail? in the PM I had suggested you didn't lose anything and perhaps like happened before to you your desktop shortcut was removed, either by a stock 7 setup has that silly program that cleans up your desktop shortcuts, etc, for me I always turn those (to me) annoying features off; actually I turn most of the UAC and other supposed security settings settings off, even 'Automatic' Windows Update, but ymmv.
In that PM I suggested to you that you don't just lose WM, and in case it was just the shortcut deleted you could just go to:
C:\Program Files\Windows Mail
..and right click on 'WinMail' in that list of files and Send to: Shortcut to Desktop.
So is that what you did to get WinMail back?

I never mentioned anything about deleting a desktop.ini file, I'm not sure where you got that from?
However those will only appear if you have your settings set to show Hidden System Files, and in your case I don't see why you need to have that set that way. Just go to this post Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide and put that setting back to where it was, no problem.

Questions about IE9 are better asked in one of the other forums at http://www.sevenforums.com/ ...Most likely at the Browsers & Mail forum there, but depending on the subject there is a forum for everything there, and when you post in the right forum you increase your chances of getting more/best help for that specific problem. This thread we're posting in now is the Tutorial section called "How to Reinstate Windows Mail in Windows 7" and so we want to keep it to just that. Post your non-reinstate WinMail questions in the proper forum for the best help.

fwiw though, I like IE9, but do agree IE8 may have been just a 'little' bit snappier even though IE9 was touted as being faster was something I never noticed, but I do like some of it's other features. If you're saying IE9 is crawling slow and you have a fast isp connection, then yes it should be pretty fast, if it's not go to the above forum and post about it.

Since it's a Mail forum at that link above for Browsers & Mail I gave you, you could ask about how to delete your extra email account you want to do there. But grits since you're here at the moment... grits it's very easy to do, it will be something like:
...open up WinMail, go to the top tab of Tools> Accounts> ...and in here simply highlight the account you don't want anymore, and click the delete button, but Be Sure you delete the right one!!! Don't delete the one you have all your 88 emails in that you mentioned above, so Be Careful! which one you delete!

all the best