Windows Live Mail running in background?

My system is W7 Home Premium SP1, IE 10 v 10.0.9200 and Windows Live Mail 2011 with all MS Updates fully up to date. Normally when I open WLM it automatically downloads any emails received since the last download and again automatically at the end of the check period (30 mins) setting, or whenever Send / Receive is clicked. Whenever emails are downloaded AVG kicks in to scan the emails and a small window pops up just above the clock.

Just recently I have noticed that the AVG window pops up when I have NOT opened WLM, and when I do immediately open it a message "No new emails" appears and one or more new unread emails can be seen. This leads me to believe that WLM is running in the background and periodically checking for new emails, but having Googled the problem I have not seen any reference to it nor any way of stopping WLM running in the background. Windows Task Manager does not show WLM under the applications tab. WLM has been installed for a long time and I have not re-installed it for any reason. I am wondering if one of the recent MS Updates has caused this change. Has anyone any experience like mine and found a solution - i.e. to return to the original (controlled) downloading?

When you start Windows and before you start WLM look in Task Manager Processes.
See if you have any of the Processes I highlighted running.
These are the four Processes I see start up when I start WLM 2011 or WLM 2012.
If you have any of these processes running before you start WLM you probably have something configured for "Auto Start"...
You may need to re-check a few minutes after starting Windows to make sure it's not something set to a Delayed Start.

Hi Roderunner - Thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware that WLM 2012 had been issued. Do Microsoft not notify people on their MS Updates 'list' when new versions are available? I certainly have no recollection of such a message. However although upgrading to 2012 might solve the issue it would not give me any clue as to why 2011 has suddenly 'mal-functioned'. I do not like 'mysteries' and would like to find the reason before I upgrade to 2012. See my reply to DavidW7ncus below.

Hi DavidW7ncus - Many thanks for your reply and suggestions. I found that wlcomm.exe and wlmail.exe were running although WLM itself was not running. I ended both processes then re-booted and neither showed up on Task Manager either immediately or shortly after. I then started WLM and both processes then appeared, and when I closed WLM both then disappeared. Could it be that for some reason in the recent past the closing of WLM failed to end the two processes and they remained running 'in the background'? I keep my system running 24/7 so do not reboot very often.

Nosmas said:

Hi DavidW7ncus - Many thanks for your reply and suggestions. I found that wlcomm.exe and wlmail.exe were running although WLM itself was not running. I ended both processes then re-booted and neither showed up on Task Manager either immediately or shortly after. I then started WLM and both processes then appeared, and when I closed WLM both then disappeared. Could it be that for some reason in the recent past the closing of WLM failed to end the two processes and they remained running 'in the background'? I keep my system running 24/7 so do not reboot very often.

From what you say it sounds like WLM did not close properly causing your problem.

Better a simple re-boot to fix it than try to hunt down where/why they got added to auto start somewhere

Hopefully the re-boot fixed your problem.