To GregS re:
I didn't do any further testing but am curious as why msoe.dll needs to be replaced. Could it possibly be due to the initial setting of the splash screen or maybe import option etc..?? Just thinkin out loud. The only visible difference I see is the file version, vista sp1 and rtm 7.
Are both reg files on your Techspot guide needed? I assumed they were and haven't had any hiccups after applying both.
I can't really comment on why either of the two files "msoe.dll" & "WinMail.exe" are needed, and other files not needed. I'm not a programmer or techo, and have come at this purely from a trial and error basis, without any real knowledge of the functions of each file, aside from the obvious function of the .exe one. What started out for me as a query in the Techspot forum turned into a research and development project, using info from this and other forums.
Where did you come by the knowledge that only those two files needed to be replaced? In the original post in this thread, the moderator Mr. Grim, stated that the entire Windows Mail folder in program files had to be replaced, so I just took that at face value, and it worked. Your modification makes it a heck of a lot easier given that "Take Ownership" didn't work in my PC environment, and I had to manually take control and delete every file... a long, tedious process.
When I contacted Microsoft as to why they included the Windows Mail application in the program files of Windows 7 when it was inoperable, I was told that it had originally been intended to go in all versions of Win7. However, due to the dispute between Microsoft and the European Community, they could not include it in Windows 7 intended for the European market. They then debated whether to have two versions of Win7; one for the European market without Win Mail and another version for all other markets with it included. The final compromise is what we've got now, with Win Mail in all versions, but it's inoperable.
When I first imported WinMail I only used the one auto registry, "Windows Mail.reg", because I couldn't find a download for "Windows Mail2.reg", (plus the manual registry edit), and it worked fine. However, tangentJohn in this forum suggested both should be used, so to cover all bases, I included both for completeness in the guide.
I also found out that the registry key that needs to be manually edited by this change, "C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" /eml:%1", is not present in a clean installation of Win7, but only appears after Windows Live Mail is installed in the OS. So if you've never loaded Win Mail Live, you needn't worry about this step.
Cheers PB