Windows Mail

To GregS re:

Oh but I do love Red in the Crimson color, as in
R o l l T i d e !
You'd have to be from bama to understand that one.

OffTopic: Never been to 'bama, in fact never been outside Aussie, but one of my favorite songs is "Sweet Home Alabama"... where the skies are so blue! (Lynyrd Skynyrd). Hell ya almost got me singing! LOL! Thought crossed my mind when you mentioned the red fetish that maybe it was said tongue in cheek.

Re

If you also can confirm that it works, then the steps for making it work are down to just a few.
1)Unhide and lose the attributes of WinMail.exe
2)Copy and paste Vista version of msoe.dll
3)Delete the reg key
4)Merge your 2 winmail reg keys on your other site

I would assume step 4 would still be needed, not for sure on that.

That sounds good to me, and would make everything a lot simpler. Unless you're importing a 32 bit to a 64 bit version, in which case I imagine you'd need the full Vista WinMail folder to put in the X86 Program Files, because the registry change for msoe.dll would only apply to the 64 bit program files... or would it?

Unfortunately, I don't have a 64 bit version of Win7 to play around with. I did have the beta version but it no longer works. Must be outdated. Consequently I haven't been able to confirm first hand that importing WinMail from a 32 bit Vista system to a 64 bit Win7 and putting it in x86 Program Files works. However, it seemed to be the case in Meriu's post, and worked OK ---> post #187 page 19.

I wonder if the 32 bit msoe.dll would work if used to replace the msoe.dll in a 64 bit Windows Mail folder in program files?

Re step 4, I suspect that would still be needed, but how would you merge the two regedit files, Windows Mail.reg and Windows Mail2.reg? Do you open each one as a text file, and copy one into the other file and save as .reg file?

To test all this out I'll have to reload Win7 as I didn't keep a back up of the original Windows Mail in Win7.

Update 1: Have since reloaded Win7 and used the four steps as you suggested. After doing the first three steps WinMail worked fine, but couldn't open .eml files on desktop. Then ran the 2 registry edit files, (Windows Mail.reg and Windows Mail2.reg), to allow .eml files to open on desktop, but then Windows Mail wouldn't work at all.

Replaced WinMail.exe file with the Vista WinMail.exe file, and then everything worked again, but had to run the "open with" option on a .eml file on the desktop, and choose WinMail to open it as default. Prior to replacing the WinMail.exe, WinMail was not offered as an option with which to open .eml files.

Don't understand the mechanics of why this all happened, but maybe you could try it and see if you get same results?

Update 2: Found a work around to the above problem. If all the other steps are done first, and msoe.dll replaced last, everything works; including opening .eml files on desktop; and there's no need to copy/paste WinMail.exe from Vista; and no need to choose WinMail as default to open .eml files.

So the final process becomes:

• Unhide and delete the attributes of WinMail.exe by the run Cmd: "attrib -s -h WinMail.exe"
• Delete the reg key to stop sfc /scannow problem: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\x86_microsoft-windows-mail-core-dll_31bf3856ad364e35_none_67a2bdecbd5f60de"
• Merge the 2 winmail reg keys: "Windows Mail.reg" & "Windows Mail2.reg"
• Take ownership of msoe.dll in WinMail in Win7 program files
• Paste "msoe.dll" from Vista WinMail into WinMail in Win7 Program files
• Disable splash screen at startup
• Import WinCal from Vista
• Run regedit files to enable WinCal to work in WinMail

What do you think, does that cover all the bases? Have to say it again Greg, you've done fantastic work sorting all that out.

Cheers Bernie

poppa bear said:

To GregS re:

Ah we posted at the same time seems like,lol

yes see my post above which is pretty much same as yours. Sorry, I had to work late today

Yep, we must of posted together, or close to... no drama! I just amended mine a minute ago to tidy it up and give an overall summary. As mentioned a couple of posts up, didn't need to set any defaults, it did it all automatically, including opening .eml files on the desktop.

Will have to go back now and change Techspot Guide... Groan! Just one small thing. In the Vista WinMail folder it incldues a couple of files that aren't in the WinMail folder from Win7. Do you think they're needed? They are:

WindowsMailGadget, & OEMSpamFilter.

I deleted the WindowsMailGadget.exe and WindowsMailGadget.exe.mui. I don't have anything that would take advantage of Windows SideShow capable devices. I left the spammer files because even though they're not updated from the net, I don't know if it's using it for spam. I have hunch that it is not using. I do know that the Junk Email options do work as far as blocked and safe senders but I don't know if it adds to the spammer files that you mention. About your two regfiles, you should be able to copy one and paste into the other making it one file.

Also on the reg key that gets deleted, you can test it if you want, but this possibly could be added to the single reg file. To test it, you would have to merge the original reg file back into the registry, find it in the registry, delete the value in the right hand pane, then delete the subkey that is under it leaving you with nothing but the original key name. When that's all you have, right click that key and export. Open it up in notepad and copy what's in it, and paste it into the other two regfiles that you converted into one. Did that make sense? I can do it for you if needed

If you combine your two reg files into one, here is what you would add/paste into the one file to delete the key that needs deleting.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\x86_microsoft-windows-mail-core-dll_31bf3856ad364e35_none_67a2bdecbd5f60de]
@="6.1"
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\x86_microsoft-windows-mail-core-dll_31bf3856ad364e35_none_67a2bdecbd5f60de\6.1]
"6.1.7600.16385"=hex:01
@="6.1.7600.16385"

Hi Greg, re:

Also on the reg key that gets deleted, you can test it if you want, but this possibly could be added to the single reg file. To test it, you would have to merge the original reg file back into the registry, find it in the registry, delete the value in the right hand pane, then delete the subkey that is under it leaving you with nothing but the original key name. When that's all you have, right click that key and export. Open it up in notepad and copy what's in it, and paste it into the other two regfiles that you converted into one. Did that make sense? I can do it for you if needed

Thanks for that info. Yes it makes sense, and I will have a go at combining all three regedit .reg files, but since it will be going into a guide, I'd feel a lot safer if you would be good enough to do it for me so I can check out my work against yours to make sure I did it right, before putting it out there, lest it wreck someone's PC.

This would mean that once all the regedit keys are combined the final one would run both the ones needed to make .eml files readable on the desktop, and delete the key to make sfc /scannow safe.

To make it complete, could something be added to amend the value data of the key referred to in my guide:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER ==> Software ==> Classes ==> eml_auto_file ==> shell ==> open ==> command
• Highlight: Command ==> In the right panel double click: Default ==> Copy and paste the following key into "Value Data":
  "C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\winmail.exe" /eml:%1

Since this key is only there if WinMailLive has been installed on the OS, and the amendment ignored if it's not there; would such an addition cause any damage, because it would try to add an amended key for one that didn't exist? Maybe it's best to just leave it as a manual edit if needed?

Re deleted reg key, I have already tested it and no problems. Just to check I'm on the same page as you, is it correct that the purpose in deleting that key is to prevent problems when running "sfc /scannow"? Also, while I know how to delete attributes, I don't really understand the purpose in doing so... pardon my ignorance, but could you please explain that to me again?

Update: It was no problem using the .reg file to restore the deleted key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners \x86_microsoft-windows-mail-core-dll_31bf3856ad364e35_none_67a2bdecbd5f60de

However, when I go to it I can only highlight the part of the key shown in brown above. It has no sub-key, nor value in the right pane that I can see. It's just one of mega keys under SidebySide\Windows. Or did you mean to delete every sub-entry under Windows\ ???

Have successfully merged all the regedit files for WinCal into one file. Ditto for the files: Windows Mail.reg, Windows Mail2.reg + the .reg file that deletes the key; and it appears to all work OK. At least I know it deleted the reg key. And since that was the last entry in the combined file, assume the others worked. No error messages. Will give it the final test by reloading Win7 and starting from scratch.

The only difference I can see in the syntax of the two .reg files that delete or restore the key, is that the delete one has a minus sign inside the first square bracket.

Cheers PB

Hi Greg,

Horse hockey? Would that be a 'bama euphemism for "horse manure"? LOL! Got a genuine laugh outa me with that one!

Re:

The only other thing that I have not tested is MRT which comes through WinUpdates or it can be run manually by typing it into the Run box. I'm only adding this because I had an issue after the last WinUpdate which I attributed to MRT.

I ran MRT using Run cmd after installing all latest updates, and it came up with zero infections, and made no difference to WinMail. However, that's running it on the full WinMail folder imported from Vista. Might be a different result if run on import of msoe.dll only?

Can you help me with this one. I have put both WinMailEdit.reg and WinCalEdit.reg files on Uploading.com which can be downloaded by clicking here & here respectively. However, when you go to the download site, if you're not a member you have to wait 60 seconds before downloading. Do you know how to put a link in a post which gives an instant direct download to a file? This is one such link here in my Techspot guide which I copied from another post. But I don't know how to do such a link from scratch for my own files. Any help would be really appreciated.

Update: No need to worry about that last question. By zipping the two files above I was able to add them as an attachment, then use the paper clip icon to insert a link to the attachment in the main body of the text. Viewers of the post can then click the file name and download without going to a 3rd party upload web site.

Also I've copied the two attachment links and pasted them into my guide, and it works as a direct download of the file.

These two files are attached

I've completely re-written my Techspot Guide based on all the various things you have worked out. If I'm not imposing on you, I'd be very grateful if you could check out my guide to see if it seems OK.

Cheers PB