Windows Mail in Windows 7

[asuh]

I am coming from Outlook Express (yeah, yeah, all jokes aside) to Windows 7. I have previously tried Windows Live Mail and I don't like it or the way it handles things. I'd love to use Thunderbird but it doesn't run as stable as I'd like. So, I'm back to good 'ole Windows Mail. Then I find out it doesn't exist in Windows 7. Great!

I've been through all the threads--this one, this one, and this one--and I can't find anyone else with my problem, so I hope you can help me! I've already replaced my files several times, restored the Windows 7 files, etc. I've tried many things already!

Background, I'm running Windows 7 x64. Although no one has confirmed this, my suspicion about my problem is that I'm trying to run x86 Windows Mail files on a x64 machine.

When I try to run WinMail.exe from the Program Files x86 directory,it starts infinitely opens WinMail.exe *32 for at least 5 minutes. Then, after a climax of between 4000-6000 WinMail.exe *32 processes, it retreats and slowly starts shutting down all the processes.

I tried to quit the process tree but then a small window pops up and say that it's an invalid process to quit.

After a normal reboot (and after waiting for several minutes for my processes to go back down to normal and all the WinMail.exe processes to shut off), I tried it again and the same thing happens.

I also get the same exact reaction from the 64bit WinMail.exe file in the regular Windows Mail folder.

I right-clicked on one of the processes and it produced a dump file called WinMail.DMP that's 37MB big!!

This is nuts!

I found another copy of Windows 7, copied the Windows Mail directory and completely overwrote both x86 and x64 directories with these other files. So I now do not have any Windows Mail files from Vista. I still get the same problem with both directories trying to execute WinMail.exe. I'm baffled.

Maybe I just need to get ahold of original x64 Windows Mail directory files and folder?

 

[Jordus]

Its almost a certainty you will need the 64 bit versions.

Windows Mail (among other things) were removed in Windows 7 in favor of the Windows Live! suite....do those not meet your needs?

 

[asuh]

Its almost a certainty you will need the 64 bit versions.

Windows Mail (among other things) were removed in Windows 7 in favor of the Windows Live! suite....do those not meet your needs?

WLM is an alright mail system, but I don't like the way it manages emails. WM isn't any better, but at least I feel like I have more control over what happens. I also don't like the way it heavily integrates into the Hotmail architecture, something that's useless to me.

Outlook Express always had exactly what I needed except one feature which I can live without.

I have a copy of Vista x64 DVD, but I'd have to go searching through the cab files to find these files and folders! Ugh. I don't wanna have to install Vista x64 just to get these files!!

 

[logicearth]

WLM is an alright mail system, but I don't like the way it manages emails. WM isn't any better, but at least I feel like I have more control over what happens. I also don't like the way it heavily integrates into the Hotmail architecture, something that's useless to me.

How is it managing the email that you do not like? How is it integrating with Hotmail? AFAIK Windows Live Mail is not tied to Hotmail in any way. Maybe if we had more information we could help sort out the problems you are having.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 are not in CAB files, BTW. They are stored in imaged form, called WIM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Imaging_Format These WIM files are fully accessible offline and online (meaning then don't need to be imaged to a HDD).

 

[asuh]

Here's my main beefs about WLM.

1. Separate accounts - I use Gmail where I import 4 different accounts into Gmail. When I download Gmail into my desktop client (Outlook Express), I only download once. I don't use IMAP because I like storing everything locally. I very often go through my archives and I'm stuck on my prehistoric folder structure in Outlook Express.
   
   You can't setup aliases in Outlook Express, Windows Mail, or Windows Mail Live. Fine, I've accepted that. But with WLM, if you create 4 different accounts, you get four different inboxes. Not cool. I don't need 4 different inboxes showing. I don't even want them to be in the left side. But it's impossible to get rid of them. All I need those extra 3 accounts for is the alias. The send as.
   
   Outlook Express/Windows Mail does not force this architecture on you. Thank God.
2. No contacts pane on the bottom left side? Yeah, I miss that from Outlook Express and hope I can find a way to use that in Windows Mail. But WLM doesn't provide that option either.
3. Top right on WLM: Sign into profile, sign into account, sign into Messenger, etc. This is how Hotmail is built into WLM. Useless for me. I don't need to be coerced into Hotmail. Sure, I could just ignore them but I can't get rid of it either. UI clutter is bad.
4. UI is even less changable than Windows Mail, at least from my last usage. It's generally the same but not customizable enough like Outlook Express/Windows Mail. i.e. Hotmail button on top right. No thanks.

Sure, my biggest beef is the inboxes and how I can't get rid of them and the other issues are much, much smaller. But it's these little things that keep me wanting Outlook Express/Windows Mail. Thunderbird is so much closer to being perfect but so far away in so many ways as well. And I've tried lots of other desktop clients that I'm not impressed with. I don't need the clutter and bulkiness of Outlook either, too much for me.

Back to the WIM comment, so theoretically I could pop in my x64 Vista disk and do a search in the WIMs for these files?

I'm afraid that even finding these x64 files won't solve my problem! But I need to give anything a shot right now as I'm kinda getting desperate and lonely without a proper desktop client.

 

[Se7en Dude]

Mail In Windows Se7en

Here's my main beefs about WLM.

1. Separate accounts - I use Gmail where I import 4 different accounts into Gmail. When I download Gmail into my desktop client (Outlook Express), I only download once. I don't use IMAP because I like storing everything locally. I very often go through my archives and I'm stuck on my prehistoric folder structure in Outlook Express.
   
   You can't setup aliases in Outlook Express, Windows Mail, or Windows Mail Live. Fine, I've accepted that. But with WLM, if you create 4 different accounts, you get four different inboxes. Not cool. I don't need 4 different inboxes showing. I don't even want them to be in the left side. But it's impossible to get rid of them. All I need those extra 3 accounts for is the alias. The send as.
   
   Outlook Express/Windows Mail does not force this architecture on you. Thank God.
2. No contacts pane on the bottom left side? Yeah, I miss that from Outlook Express and hope I can find a way to use that in Windows Mail. But WLM doesn't provide that option either.
3. Top right on WLM: Sign into profile, sign into account, sign into Messenger, etc. This is how Hotmail is built into WLM. Useless for me. I don't need to be coerced into Hotmail. Sure, I could just ignore them but I can't get rid of it either. UI clutter is bad.
4. UI is even less changable than Windows Mail, at least from my last usage. It's generally the same but not customizable enough like Outlook Express/Windows Mail. i.e. Hotmail button on top right. No thanks.

Sure, my biggest beef is the inboxes and how I can't get rid of them and the other issues are much, much smaller. But it's these little things that keep me wanting Outlook Express/Windows Mail. Thunderbird is so much closer to being perfect but so far away in so many ways as well. And I've tried lots of other desktop clients that I'm not impressed with. I don't need the clutter and bulkiness of Outlook either, too much for me.

Back to the WIM comment, so theoretically I could pop in my x64 Vista disk and do a search in the WIMs for these files?

I'm afraid that even finding these x64 files won't solve my problem! But I need to give anything a shot right now as I'm kinda getting desperate and lonely without a proper desktop client.

...:shock:

 

[myzr7]

I am coming from Outlook Express (yeah, yeah, all jokes aside) to Windows 7. I have previously tried Windows Live Mail and I don't like it or the way it handles things. I'd love to use Thunderbird but it doesn't run as stable as I'd like. So, I'm back to good 'ole Windows Mail. Then I find out it doesn't exist in Windows 7. Great!

I've been through all the threads--this one, this one, and this one--and I can't find anyone else with my problem, so I hope you can help me! I've already replaced my files several times, restored the Windows 7 files, etc. I've tried many things already!

Background, I'm running Windows 7 x64. Although no one has confirmed this, my suspicion about my problem is that I'm trying to run x86 Windows Mail files on a x64 machine.

When I try to run WinMail.exe from the Program Files x86 directory,it starts infinitely opens WinMail.exe *32 for at least 5 minutes. Then, after a climax of between 4000-6000 WinMail.exe *32 processes, it retreats and slowly starts shutting down all the processes.

I tried to quit the process tree but then a small window pops up and say that it's an invalid process to quit.

After a normal reboot (and after waiting for several minutes for my processes to go back down to normal and all the WinMail.exe processes to shut off), I tried it again and the same thing happens.

I also get the same exact reaction from the 64bit WinMail.exe file in the regular Windows Mail folder.

I right-clicked on one of the processes and it produced a dump file called WinMail.DMP that's 37MB big!!

This is nuts!

I found another copy of Windows 7, copied the Windows Mail directory and completely overwrote both x86 and x64 directories with these other files. So I now do not have any Windows Mail files from Vista. I still get the same problem with both directories trying to execute WinMail.exe. I'm baffled.

Maybe I just need to get ahold of original x64 Windows Mail directory files and folder?

Some have used this tutorial to restore Win MAIL in 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5481-windows-mail.html

 

[asuh]

Some have used this tutorial to restore Win MAIL in 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5481-windows-mail.html

Yes, I've seen that one too but what I'm missing are the x64 files from an x64 Vista! Where can I find those online!

 

[jimbo45]

Some have used this tutorial to restore Win MAIL in 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5481-windows-mail.html

Yes, I've seen that one too but what I'm missing are the x64 files from an x64 Vista! Where can I find those online!

"Forum Rules" -- other than buying a copy of VISTA or getting it from / MSDN / Technet subscription, "non approved" sources can't be discussed on these boards.

I'd suggest in any case go for OUTLOOK in MS office - especially with the new starter edition of Office 2010. It does more or less what you want and has a nice calendar feature (which you can hide).

Also Outlook is compatable with most workplaces as well.

Outlook express settings and folders can be imported into Outlook - but peversly enough not Windows Mail so another reason to junk Windows mail.

And BTW you are not the only one to hate Live mail -- I did too - but having a Technet subscription I downloaded Office enterprise.

If you are at a college or work you might qualify for a free or very cheap (10 USD for the media) version of Office 2007 under the MS Use at Home licence. - Google on that as I can't remember the link.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[asuh]

Jimbo, I was mostly being hypothetical asking where to find those files.

While I've not tried Outlook 2010, I'm generally not a fan of bloated mail programs where I would only use 10% of the features. I've dabbled with Outlook 2000/2003/2007 over the years and I'm never impressed. In fact, I Outlook offers me no benefit to Windows Mail. I'm a normal business user who is not in school so I don't qualify for a discount.

But, back to the original problem here! I guess no one has a real solution to answer my problem.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
If you are a business user a lot of firms have a Use at Home agreement with Microsoft - Office definitely fits into this category.

Another suggestion is ask around - collegues / your IT dept if they have a Vista 64 install disk you can borrow to get the files off.

In any case if you have the 32 bit install disk you can get the 64 bit version for just the cost of the media (10 USD / 6EUR I think).

If your computer had a pre-installed OEM version with no install disk but just a Recovery option I think you are hosed up --- Instead of the EU worrying about what browser one uses it would be much better to ensure ALL shop bought computers that had an OS installed gave you the Microsoft Installation disk (you've paid for the license anyway when you get the machine).

Cheers
jimbo.

 

[myzr7]

You may have the very files that you need if you did not format your drive and did a clean install of windows 7. Do you have windows old file. This info is found here
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19151-windows-old-folder-delete.html
Information
If you performed a custom installation (not a upgrade installation), without formatting the drive for a clean install, and selected to install Windows 7 on the same partition of the previous Windows installation, then this will show you how to delete the Windows.old folder generated during installation.

NOTE
The C:\Windows.old folder contains folders and files from the previous Windows installation. Be sure to copy any files or data that you may still want to keep to another location before deleting this folder

 

[TheSchaft]

Here's my main beefs about WLM.


... Sure, my biggest beef is the inboxes and how I can't get rid of them and the other issues are much, much smaller...

My wife didn't like the multiple Inboxes "feature" either, so I set it up to use "Quickview" to display the unread mail and junk mail. The list of accounts is still there, but now she can ignore them and keep them collapsed.

To set it up, right click on "Quickview" in the folders pane and click the types of mail you want displayed in the quickview.

(Not an optimum solution, but might ease the heartburn if you don't go back to WM. )

 

[asuh]

I appreciate the alternative suggestions, but I wish I hadn't posted here just to defend what I want to do. I was hoping to get answers to my problem.

I am going to get ahold of some Windows Mail x64 files and folder today so I will report back when I have my results. I'm afraid of this problem being exactly the same with the x64 files too, which means it's possibly a registry problem? This is where I need advice and experience!

 

[asuh]

I got lucky!

After finally tracking down some Vista x64 Windows Mail folders and files, I installed them over my previous ones and this fixed the problem! I now have Windows Mail again!

So, somehow when I had it running successfully the first time, it got corrupted in the process. So, the solution was to just delete both versions, the x86 and x64 Windows Mail directories, and copy the new versions which came from an x64 Windows install. Then, I ran the x64 WinMail.exe file and it fired up like normal!

 

[lbjgh]

Thanks for the persistence asuh. I also have the same issue and wish to install windows mail.

I've got vista64 ultimate so hopefully the windows mail files can be accessed there.

I agree with you that windows Mail works fine for my needs....

off to attempt to locate the data on my Vista64 disk... wish me luck!

 

[lnxtinman]

Here's my main beefs about WLM.

1. Separate accounts - I use Gmail where I import 4 different accounts into Gmail. When I download Gmail into my desktop client (Outlook Express), I only download once. I don't use IMAP because I like storing everything locally. I very often go through my archives and I'm stuck on my prehistoric folder structure in Outlook Express.
   
   You can't setup aliases in Outlook Express, Windows Mail, or Windows Mail Live. Fine, I've accepted that. But with WLM, if you create 4 different accounts, you get four different inboxes. Not cool. I don't need 4 different inboxes showing. I don't even want them to be in the left side. But it's impossible to get rid of them. All I need those extra 3 accounts for is the alias. The send as.
   
   Outlook Express/Windows Mail does not force this architecture on you. Thank God.
2. No contacts pane on the bottom left side? Yeah, I miss that from Outlook Express and hope I can find a way to use that in Windows Mail. But WLM doesn't provide that option either.
3. Top right on WLM: Sign into profile, sign into account, sign into Messenger, etc. This is how Hotmail is built into WLM. Useless for me. I don't need to be coerced into Hotmail. Sure, I could just ignore them but I can't get rid of it either. UI clutter is bad.
4. UI is even less changable than Windows Mail, at least from my last usage. It's generally the same but not customizable enough like Outlook Express/Windows Mail. i.e. Hotmail button on top right. No thanks.

Sure, my biggest beef is the inboxes and how I can't get rid of them and the other issues are much, much smaller. But it's these little things that keep me wanting Outlook Express/Windows Mail. Thunderbird is so much closer to being perfect but so far away in so many ways as well. And I've tried lots of other desktop clients that I'm not impressed with. I don't need the clutter and bulkiness of Outlook either, too much for me.

Back to the WIM comment, so theoretically I could pop in my x64 Vista disk and do a search in the WIMs for these files?

I'm afraid that even finding these x64 files won't solve my problem! But I need to give anything a shot right now as I'm kinda getting desperate and lonely without a proper desktop client.

...:shock:

i use WLM and my contacts are on bottom left.....i also get my gmail when i open WLM. what i do not understand is...when i had windows mail it had a send/RECEIVE button...and WLM does not. do you have to restart WLM to check your mail each time?:shock:

 

[myzr7]

Here's my main beefs about WLM.

1. Separate accounts - I use Gmail where I import 4 different accounts into Gmail. When I download Gmail into my desktop client (Outlook Express), I only download once. I don't use IMAP because I like storing everything locally. I very often go through my archives and I'm stuck on my prehistoric folder structure in Outlook Express.
   
   You can't setup aliases in Outlook Express, Windows Mail, or Windows Mail Live. Fine, I've accepted that. But with WLM, if you create 4 different accounts, you get four different inboxes. Not cool. I don't need 4 different inboxes showing. I don't even want them to be in the left side. But it's impossible to get rid of them. All I need those extra 3 accounts for is the alias. The send as.
   
   Outlook Express/Windows Mail does not force this architecture on you. Thank God.
2. No contacts pane on the bottom left side? Yeah, I miss that from Outlook Express and hope I can find a way to use that in Windows Mail. But WLM doesn't provide that option either.
3. Top right on WLM: Sign into profile, sign into account, sign into Messenger, etc. This is how Hotmail is built into WLM. Useless for me. I don't need to be coerced into Hotmail. Sure, I could just ignore them but I can't get rid of it either. UI clutter is bad.
4. UI is even less changable than Windows Mail, at least from my last usage. It's generally the same but not customizable enough like Outlook Express/Windows Mail. i.e. Hotmail button on top right. No thanks.

Sure, my biggest beef is the inboxes and how I can't get rid of them and the other issues are much, much smaller. But it's these little things that keep me wanting Outlook Express/Windows Mail. Thunderbird is so much closer to being perfect but so far away in so many ways as well. And I've tried lots of other desktop clients that I'm not impressed with. I don't need the clutter and bulkiness of Outlook either, too much for me.

Back to the WIM comment, so theoretically I could pop in my x64 Vista disk and do a search in the WIMs for these files?

I'm afraid that even finding these x64 files won't solve my problem! But I need to give anything a shot right now as I'm kinda getting desperate and lonely without a proper desktop client.

...:shock:

i use WLM and my contacts are on bottom left.....i also get my gmail when i open WLM. what i do not understand is...when i had windows mail it had a send/RECEIVE button...and WLM does not. do you have to restart WLM to check your mail each time?:shock:

 

[lnxtinman]

ty

 

[sevensupport]

i just have to commnet on the issue of WLM, which is crap in my opinion

i tried WLM, and my mails in hotmail account "in WLM" is different from mails I have up to date.
Those mails held in WLM are incomplete, scattered mails over the past 5 years. Do I syncronize?
I won't, don't dare to run into any possibilities that i may lose those important emails i've accumulated over the years

and this inbox, seperate account issue is too annoying me
i trade shares in which their pdf confirmation note are sent to Outlook Express (OE) and I can open them up straight away, unlike WLM that will need to take few seconds to do
those few seconds can cost money

someone has suggested office 2007, and it's available for me to purchase as a company employee.
but why do I want to pay extra for a function that has always been offered the past 13 years?
so i started using Google Docs, in a sight that I will no longer be tied to Microsoft Office


I've bought windows 7 ultimate, which i am reluctant to install and want to sell it

MS sells 7 as a new program, when it's really based on vista and minor improvement on its interface and compatability

based on the greed they protrait, i would continue to support xp and wish failure of 7 can give PC market a wake up call

We need more competitions in choices of premium OSs, no wonder they said launch of 7 could spur another Mac sale
I will give Mac a go after xp is died out