WL Mail 2011 to WLM 2009

I have an Acer laptop with Win7 Home Premium 64bit, just a few months old, and I downloaded Windows Essentials 2011, mainly for its Live Mail component. I have come to the conclusion that I simply cannot stay with this, and I want to remove/replace it.

I've read quite a bit on Google about alternatives - Thunderbird, Opera mail, Google mail, which all seem preferable to what I've got, but I've also seen many comments from Live Mail 2011 users who have gone back to the 2009 version because of its apparently better functionality and options, plus a pretty consistent grouse about the new ribbon features in 2011. So, I fancy giving it a try.

I've read that I would need to remove WL Essentials first in Add/Remove, and also manually delete Windows Live folder from C:\Program Files, before installing 2009. My biggest worry - given how many problems I had setting up Live Mail from OE accounts - is, can I be sure that, having deleted WLM 2011, all my email accounts, mails, and contacts will, nevertheless, be available in WLM 2009 when I install it?

To play it safe, I'd copy the "Message Store" (and the "Windows Live Contacts" folder as well if you have not been signing in) to a separate safe location on your hard drive. It's easy to import the messages into your new install of WLM 2009. Contacts may be tricky if you have not been "signing-in". If you have been "signing-in" your "signed-in" contact list will remain unchanged since it is saved on the website "contacts.live.com".

If you either have not been signing in or you also have contacts in your "not-signed-in" contacts list that you want to keep, the safest thing to do is to "export" your contacts while not signed in and then import them into WLM 2009. You will do the import process while either "signed-in" or not "signed-in" depending on which contact list you want them to go to. Keep in mind that when using export/import for contacts you wll lose the folder groupings you may have set up for the contacts.

Glad to say all went well using Roderunner's link and Roncerr's tips - cheers, again. Don't know how but my accounts and messages were there when 2009 installed, but no contacts. However, a quick export from my PC XP unit and import solved that.

Must say, I'm delighted with the Live Mail appearance. No ribbons (spit!), just a couple of toolbars full of what you'd expect to find in a mail program. I blame Bill Gates - he should never have relinquished control and left the lunatics in charge of his asylum!