Winmail setup ok in Windows 7 but UI disappeared

Hi, I hope someone can help me, I'm not sure if it's something daft I've done but whatever's caused it it's winding me up! I have just got a new PC which has Windows 7 on it, haven't used it before and definitely want to run WinMail on it. I followed the instructions from http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5481-windows-mail.html (thank you) and it seemed to work fine. Because I had rescued my emails from a knackered Vista laptop, it was just the messages I was worried about, so I imported them into Winmail and set about setting up all my accounts and rules. It took me a while but I got there in the end. I was happily using it for a couple of days (pc had been rebooted in that time) but yesterday I let it do some Windows updates on startup and now Winmail has started doing something rather strange.

When I double-click Winmail, it appears to do nothing, but in fact it is downloading my emails and I get a 'you have new mail' icon bottom right. Also if I disconnect from the internet I get the usual failure message, but no Winmail UI so I just can't get to my emails. In task manager it doesn't show an app running, but shows winmail in the processes list. I wondered if it had just put it 'out of sight', but Alt-tabbing doesn't show anything.

I don't really know if it's related to the Windows updates, I actually uninstalled them again but it made no difference. I've since actually removed any Windows Live stuff listed in Programs in case there was a conflict, but still no good.

Does anyone have any ideas please? I could start again but I don't want to lose the emails that have downloaded into thin air over the past 2 days and obviously I want to avoid the same thing happening again:-(

Jan
ps only WinMail (or even OE!) are of interest to me, because they do exactly what I want. I do know of other apps.

The update has probably changed msoe.dll to a newer version that is not compatible with Windows 7. You may have to find a friend using Windows Vista's version of Windows Mail and get a version of msoe.dll that will work. Make sure that you copy it to the appropriate Program Files folder, depending on whether you are using a 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 7.

I'd suggest looking for a version that has a date of 5-13-2010 and is sized at 2,032 KB. Versions were earlier posted on the Forum but have been removed since posting them violates policy established by Microsoft.

Good luck.

Jim

jim0933 said:

The update has probably changed msoe.dll to a newer version that is not compatible with Windows 7. You may have to find a friend using Windows Vista's version of Windows Mail and get a version of msoe.dll that will work. Make sure that you copy it to the appropriate Program Files folder, depending on whether you are using a 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 7.

I'd suggest looking for a version that has a date of 5-13-2010 and is sized at 2,032 KB. Versions were earlier posted on the Forum but have been removed since posting them violates policy established by Microsoft.

Click to expand...

I just downloaded the current tutorial version which is slightly smaller than the version I downloaded last April. However my Vista PC, which is up to date, has the very same size and date for msoe.dll as the current tutorial version for 32-bit:
1,616,384 Bytes 1/29/10

roncerr said:

I just downloaded the current tutorial version which is slightly smaller than the version I downloaded last April. However my Vista PC, which is up to date, has the very same size and date for msoe.dll as the current tutorial version for 32-bit:
1,616,384 Bytes 1/29/10

Click to expand...

I concur with Roncerr. My Vista 32bit msoe.dll file likewise perfectly matches the current tutorial 32bit msoe.dll file. I have all the latest MS updates installed.

In 64bit Windows 7, I am concurrently running Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail, and the msoe.dll file in Windows Mail folder in Program Files - NOT Program files(x86) - is identical to the latest msoe.dll file in a friend's 64bit Vista installation, which is running Windows Mail only, and which has all the latest MS updates.

I'm still not sure why the Vista msoe.dll in Windows 7 OS doesn't bork the WinLiveMail application, given that Microsoft advised me that WinLiveMail uses all the files in the Windows Mail folder in program files in Windows 7?

jim0933 said:

I'd suggest looking for a version that has a date of 5-13-2010 and is sized at 2,032 KB. Versions were earlier posted on the Forum but have been removed since posting them violates policy established by Microsoft.

Good luck.

Jim

Click to expand...

Posting of msoe.dll files does not violate MS copyright policies. This has been confirmed by Brink.

Perhaps you're referring to the removal of links that offerd the full Vista Windows Mail folder found in Progam files; which certainly does violate MS copyright.

jaydee97 said:

I was happily using it for a couple of days (pc had been rebooted in that time) but yesterday I let it do some Windows updates on startup and now Winmail has started doing something rather strange.

I don't really know if it's related to the Windows updates, I actually uninstalled them again but it made no difference. I've since actually removed any Windows Live stuff listed in Programs in case there was a conflict, but still no good.

Does anyone have any ideas please?

Jan
ps only WinMail (or even OE!) are of interest to me, because they do exactly what I want. I do know of other apps.

Click to expand...

There is a Windows Update KB978542 that modifies the msoe.dll file in the Windows Mail folder in Program Files and stops Windows Mail from working.

To fix this problem, leave this update installed, or it will only download again and bork WinMail from working.

Once the update is installed, simply replace the existing msoe.dll file in the Windows Mail folder in Program files with the appropriate msoe.dll from Step 4 of the tutorial. This should restore WinMail to full operational status.

The msoe.dll file in the tutorial is an updated version that corrects a security issue and comes from the Windows Mail folder in program files of Vista that has update KB978542 installed.

Thanks folks, that's all it was. I copied the dll over again and it works fine again now. All 'lost' emails are there. For a time I was considering going back to Vista, as my email system )for various reasons) is actually one of the main things I use the PC for!

Your help has been much appreciated. I hope MS get the message and start to look after those of us who don't want to use Live!

Jan