Windows Mail

yeah, on 1 PC the old link didn't work anyone
but here, even if I start winmail directly in the program folder, it's still listed as written above

I made the win mail hack right after installation (clean) of Win x64 professional back last August. All has been well until SP1 update in late Feb. The error message search *80004005 lead to this thread among others.

After reading thru this thread and digesting the info and trying several things, I finally got the SP installed. Here is what worked for me:

1. Rename Winmail folder in Program Files folder to Winmail vista.
2. Copied original folder (complete) from my original install DVD (using 7ZIP to do the work) directly to the Program Files directory. Then reboot cold from complete power off. (Another thread on this forum tells how to use 7Zip for this).
3. Uninstall update KB978542, Reboot from Power off.
4. Ran SFC /scannow from an Administrator privilege command prompt window. Reboot from power off.
5. Install SP1 from regular update screen - took about 30 Min but completed normally.

I have now installed Thunderbird 3.1.9 and have it configured to mimic Winmail which it does fairly well. I am done with the hacks.

Thanks to all the contributers on this thread for the inspiration!

Thank everybody for your help, I am a 69 year old computer "Whacker!",
it is very difficult for me to understand all the different messages that I receive from you folks but I deeply appreciate your taking time to help "old folks" like me;
Again Many Thanks;
bobk

Thank you to all who have helped me. bobk

Good Morning All,
I have read so much on this subject and am so confused, as you can tell by my user name, I am no young duck and get confused very easily when it comes to the computer world.
Right now I have a HP Compac Laptop that is running Windows Vista but am (very soon) going to upgrade only because I need a faster one butttt I am petrified that I will lose my Windows Mail program that I currently use in Vista. I went as far as to call some computer places to see if I can get one that has Windows Vista with no luck. So here I am, I have read all of the instructions, all the corrections and am now totally convinced, I am computer illiterate. Is there somewhere I can go to get all the "current" instructions (with all the fixes) already included?

At this point I do not have my new laptop with Windows 7 (not sure now if I want to) but is there something I can do prior to the upgrade to prepare myself to make the revert back to Windows Mail from Windows Live Mail alot less confusing for this old girl?
Once I purchase, might even be tomorrow or the next day, I will need all current instructions in one place or I am doomed.

Thanking you in advance for any help you good people can provide.. (pretty please)

Grammaxsix

Really it is true, you cannot buy a NEW computer at a typical store which has Vista. However, you will find no difficulty in finding a new or refurbished computer on line which does. AND save yourself considerable money in the process. If you go with Windows 7 You'll not only lose windows mail, you'll also find there are a lot of other processes you will have to relearn. Dell even has an official resale store where they sell fatory warranted vista machines. Find a computer guru that you trust and have him do the online research for you. I think you'll be pleased with the results. I like windows 7 better than I did Vista, but only marginally and that's because I did know enough to allow me to reactivate windows mail and make some othe "vista look alike" mods. At present I'm debating whether or not I want to do sevice pack 1 for Windows 7 or not, simply because I have made so many mods and would have to do it all over again. When someone warns you that Vista was a piece of junk....? Well it simply is not so. Vista was just fine. Its just that Windows 7 is marginally better and is what Vista should have been in the first place. Good Luck

Really it is true, you cannot buy a NEW computer at a typical store which has Vista. However, you will find no difficulty in finding a new or refurbished computer on line which does. AND save yourself considerable money in the process. If you go with Windows 7 You'll not only lose windows mail, you'll also find there are a lot of other processes you will have to relearn. Dell even has an official resale store where they sell fatory warranted vista machines. Find a computer guru that you trust and have him do the online research for you. I think you'll be pleased with the results. I like windows 7 better than I did Vista, but only marginally and that's because I did know enough to allow me to reactivate windows mail and make some othe "vista look alike" mods. At present I'm debating whether or not I want to do sevice pack 1 for Windows 7 or not, simply because I have made so many mods and would have to do it all over again. When someone warns you that Vista was a piece of junk....? Well it simply is not so. Vista was just fine. Its just that Windows 7 is marginally better and is what Vista should have been in the first place. Good Luck

Thanks for your reply.. I never thought of refurbished.... I will check into that

Grammaxsix said:

Good Morning All,
I have read so much on this subject and am so confused, as you can tell by my user name, I am no young duck and get confused very easily when it comes to the computer world.
Right now I have a HP Compac Laptop that is running Windows Vista but am (very soon) going to upgrade only because I need a faster one butttt I am petrified that I will lose my Windows Mail program that I currently use in Vista. I went as far as to call some computer places to see if I can get one that has Windows Vista with no luck. So here I am, I have read all of the instructions, all the corrections and am now totally convinced, I am computer illiterate. Is there somewhere I can go to get all the "current" instructions (with all the fixes) already included?

At this point I do not have my new laptop with Windows 7 (not sure now if I want to) but is there something I can do prior to the upgrade to prepare myself to make the revert back to Windows Mail from Windows Live Mail alot less confusing for this old girl?
Once I purchase, might even be tomorrow or the next day, I will need all current instructions in one place or I am doomed.

Thanking you in advance for any help you good people can provide.. (pretty please)

Grammaxsix

If you eventually choose to have a computer with Windows 7 as an operating system, and want Windows Mail to function in this system, I would suggest doing the following steps before trying to activate Windows Mail.

1. Assuming Windows 7 is pre-installed and up and running, install all your desired third party programs such as Nero, Zone Alarm, Skype, etec, etec.

2. Now Open: Start Menu --> All Programs --> Windows Update --> Check for updates.

3. Once all updates are installed, re-run Windows Update again, as it often picks up more updates on a 2nd run. You should now have Service Pack 1 installed, which will include critical update KB978542.

4. Now follow the steps exactly as shown on Page 1 of this Tutorial.

As a test run, I did fresh installations of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 and 32bit, and executed the above steps in the order shown, and Windows Mail ran fine.

Unfortunately there is always the possibility that at some future point Service Pack 2 or some other update will be released which could cause problems for Windows Mail. For this reason my personal preference in the end was to go with Windows Live Mail, which is a known compatible mail server program. I don't consider it as a good a program as Windows Mail, but runs a fairly close second.

Hope this helps.

Like ‘Grammaxsix' and ‘bobkupferer’ I too am past my best, 72 next month.
I like Windows Mail and had it on my Windows 7 laptop for quite a while. I installed it by using the excellent information on this site. I also put it on my sister in laws laptop as well and it’s still going strong, after a couple of scares though!
However I was worried by the potential threat of Windows Mail ceasing to work again because of future updates and the nuisance of sorting it….again!
This led me to look at 37 other email clients. I tested 25 and got them down to a short list of 9 and gave them a good test. However over time shortcomings appeared.
At the beginning of this test I was totally against using Thunderbird as my initial inspection was not good but over time and with the latest version and the various addons it is now very good. I use it all the time and I have now installed it on my sister in laws laptop as well. It can be made to mimic Outlook Express and WindowsMail quite well.
It’s not to difficult to change over from Windows Mail to Thunderbird, you can still run Windows Mail while you get Thunderbird sorted.