Windows Mail

Eyas said:

Put your mouse pointer on your name and left click and go to "View public profile" and check visitor message.

I am over-thrilled.
Everything working just perfectly now.

Thanks a lot for your help.!!!!!!!!!

You're most welcome. It might pay to keep a back up copy of your Windows 7, Windows Mail folders, in case you ever need them again.

Cheers PB

Thank you so much. WLM as supplied with Win 7 was driving me potty. IMAP with Gmail was an absolute nightmare - messages not downloading, messages lost into the ether and fearful lag with every operation. Delighted to be back in a Windows Mail/POP3 environment. Phew!

Update: After seeing your post about the conflicts, I read the tutorial. Since I already had the whole thing copied over from Vista, I ran the registry update you posted and everything works.

If I have to reinstall Win7 in the future I will follow the instructions more closely. But for now, it works!! Thanks!! Now I can get rid of the buggy Outlook 2010 Beta.

Tocapet said:

Update: After seeing your post about the conflicts, I read the tutorial. Since I already had the whole thing copied over from Vista, I ran the registry update you posted and everything works.

If I have to reinstall Win7 in the future I will follow the instructions more closely. But for now, it works!! Thanks!! Now I can get rid of the buggy Outlook 2010 Beta.

Hey that's fantastic! I'm stoked for you. Way to go!!!.... re dumping Outlook 2010 Beta!

Cheers PB

First a thank you to Mr. Grim, the originator of this tutorial, and to the R&D skill sets of Ex_Brit and GregS (who also wrote some great code).

And a special thank you to Poppa Bear, who (even though this thread is over a year old) still continues to test and update this tutorial; & has proven to be an excellent shepherd guiding the sheep. As one who has read every post in this thread => To any one considering reinstating Windows Mail on Win7 => your in good hands.

I followed the tutorial and installed the 64bit Vista "msoe.dll" (including 28 custom made sub-folders) on a Win7Ux64 OS.

In short order, I was downloading hundreds of emails from 3 different accounts w/o any problems.

Out of curiosity, I checked to see if the following registry key (Footnote 2.) was installed:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER ==> Software ==> Classes ==> eml_auto_file ==> shell ==> open ==> command
[with a Value Data of]: "C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" /eml:%1

That registry key was not installed as there is no folder named: eml_auto_file

However, I did find a similar registry key with the path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER ==> Software ==> Classes ==> Applications ==> WinMail.exe ==> shell ==> open ==> command
: "C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" %1

The folder named: ==> eml_auto_file ==>
is replaced by: ==> Applications ==> WinMail.exe ==>

& the Value Data is MISSING: ... /eml: ...

Now, for what may be a pointless question, does the key in this path, have the correct Value Data?

"C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" %1

or should it be changed to the (Footnote 2.) Value Data?

"C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" /eml:%1

Best regards,

The original edit for this registry key came from Post No 6, by tagnentjohn in a Windows Vista forum in October 2009, which can be viewed via this link here.

He also referred to the two regedit files, Windows-Mail.reg & Windows-Mail2.reg needed to allow .eml files to open on desktop. Both these regedits are included in the download WinMailEdit.zip found in Step 1 of the current modified tutorial for enabling WinMail in Windows 7. Links to download these individual files can be found in posts from xsmile here and here.

Credits are also due to both tangentjohn and xsmile as these regedits are vital to the processs.

Hi PB.
Thank you for your more than timely response and also reminding me that I forgot to proofread my post. I wrote the text, but forgot to include two important names. The first sentence should have been:

"First a thank you to Mr. Grim, the originator of this tutorial, and to the R&D skill sets of Ex_Brit and Greg S; and to xsmile & Daniel Windows7, who also wrote some great code."

I have been following this thread for 4 months, and one can surely make a case to include more names (e.g. Brink, for publishing your updated post #317 as the default tutorial for this thread), I was mainly referring to the code in POST #292 [https://www.sevenforums.com/516625-post292.html] when I wrote the above. My intention was to highlight those who provided the original ingredients to the solution, and one would be remiss not to mention you as the humble master chef (w/ Greg S as mentor) who combined all of those ingredients into a cohesive whole.

I am unaware of the extent of tangentjohn's contribution, but as far as I can tell, he did not write any of the files used in WinMailEdit.zip. In the "Post No 6" []Solved Enabling Windows Mail in Windows 7 - Vista Forums that you reference, he doesn't name the author, yet makes clear it is not him, "Someone sent me this solution."

In this thread here [.eml attachments won't open In windows mail in 'Seven (re: .eml attachment Now opens in WinMail In Windows 7) tangentjohn credits the sevenforums member: Daniel Windows7:

"Thank YOU, so VERY much! I don't have a clue how you guys figure out these Registry edit solutions. But however you do it I appreciate it. I've made many a fix thanks to someone else's genius."

in response to this post:

Daniel Windows7 Solution: eml windows mail
Hi, Ok my english is not really good but I had the same problem as you and I found a solution.
Click on Start and click on Run. Type regedit and click ok.
Go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\eml_auto_file\shell\open\command
Double click on Default in right pane and change Value Data for exactly that:
"C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" /eml:%1
and click ok. That's it, enjoy !

English skills notwithstanding, that post is almost verbatim re: Footnote 2. in the Tutorial. In the same thread, Daniel Windows7 (seen as the threads "guru"), adds additional instructions to the above post; (and also provides this reg file: emlautofile.reg). As a result, I think Daniel Windows7, deserves to be included in the tutorial credits.

Re: Quote: "the two regedit files [...] needed to allow .eml files to open on desktop."
Both Windows-Mail.reg & Windows-Mail2.reg files, as far as I can tell, were worked out and coded by xsmile. Some snippets from the link you provided [Can't Make Windows Mail Default makes that clear:

xsmile post #32 "I attached a registry file which assigns Windows Mail to 'mailto' links and besides imports all necessary registry keys used by Windows Mail."; xsmile #35 "I updated the registry file."; xsmile #41 "I will try to extend my registry file."; xsmile #43 "Try this registry file. It is an addition to the first one." [to which: Ex_Brit #44 responds, "... Thanks for all [your] help!!"; techs #53 responds, "You, sir, are a steely eyed computer guru!"]; xsmile #45 "At least one step close. I forgot to include one small registry key. Please download the first attachment again" [to which Ex_Brit #46 responds, "Eureka..!! It finally worked. Thanks very much xsmile!!"]; xsmile #47 "I'm glad it worked! One thing is still missing though."; & mutant #54 "Thanks xsmile for the registry files they helped eliminate my windows problems."

As a result, I think xsmile, deserves the credit for: Windows-Mail.reg & Windows-Mail2.reg. I'm not sure what % of WinMailEdit.zip is the work of xsmile, but I suspect it is substantial.
Note: For other files (including: xsmile.exe) worked out using the same MO and coded by xsmile go here []Disable PowerMizer **Tested** - Page 7 Re: his app: Powermizer Switch - get the most out of your video card.

Soon, I hope to post some information re: a similar registry key with the path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER ==> Software ==> Classes ==> Applications ==> WinMail.exe ==> shell ==> open ==> command: "C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" %1

Thanks again for all of your work, it is greatly appreciated! 2CR LZW

I have installed windows mail for windows 7 as per your instructions but
> the icon will not open... when i go to do the registry manually the link
> after classes....eml_auto_file is not there?? Please let me know what i
> am doing wrong.. i went and did it 3 times with no outcome.... Thanks Rick

Scorpionking259 said:

I have installed windows mail for windows 7 as per your instructions but
> the icon will not open... when i go to do the registry manually the link
> after classes....eml_auto_file is not there?? Please let me know what i
> am doing wrong.. i went and did it 3 times with no outcome.... Thanks Rick

It's hard to know why without having seen exactly step by step what you did.

If the registry key referred to in Footnote 2 is not present, you don't have to worry about it. That should not be the problem.

I presume the icon you're referring to is the WinMail.exe icon in the Windows Mail folder? This icon becomes visible after running Step 2 to remove WinMail.exe attributes. Re-open Windows Mail folder in Program files to make sure it's visible. In some installations it has been necessary to make this visible using the manual method as shown in Footnote 4.

The system procedure itself works and has been tried and tested on many installions so it's possible one of the steps has not been done properly? If for example, the WinMail.exe icon is clicked before all the steps are done, it will not open, but is seen to be running by Windows. By rebooting your PC this will normally resolve this problem, because it will be shut down in the re-boot.

In essence you should have:

1. Downloaded and run the file WinMailEdit before doing anything else.

2. Run the command: attrib -s -h "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Mail\WinMail.exe" in the Run command box.

3. Downloaded the Take Ownership file and run it.

4. Taken Ownership of the msoe.dll file in Windows Mail folder in Windows 7 program files.

5. Downloaded the appropriate Vista msoe.dll file.

6. Pasted the Vista msoe.dll file into Windows Mail in program files in Windows 7, replacing the original Windows 7 msoe.dll.

7. Sent WinMail.exe to desktop as a shortcut.

Having done that, clicking on the WinMail.exe icon on the desktop should open Windows Mail.


1. Are you getting any error messages?

2. Are you using a 64 or 32bit installation of Windows 7? If it's a 64bit then you only should have downloaded the 64bit Vista msoe.dll file. And it should have only been pasted into the normal Program files, NOT the Program files(x86) which should be left untouched.

3. If you kept a back-up of the original msoe.dll file from Windows Mail in Program files in Windows 7, I'd suggest reinstating this and running the tutorial from the top.

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers PB