Run Windows Live Mail without Live

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I messed up and got this one in the wrong category. I can’t figure out how to move it to the mail category. Sorry. Judy

Hi,
Installing my Windows Live Mail went very easily and is linked to my hotmail account. I am adjusting to it just fine and like the way it syncs my calendar and contacts, providing me an online backup, so to speak.

Now my friend will need a new e-mail program, but I don’t want her to have a Live.com, live messenger, or Hotmail account linked to it as she is not capable of dealing with the additional items.

For her sanity and mine, I would like to install Windows Live Mail on her new computer and opt out of any link to these online items. I can set it up to look very much like her old Outlook Express: Same preview pane, similar menu, similar type of settings. That way when she calls me I’ll be able to answer her questions pretty easily. And she will call.

Can WLM install without this coordination to the online mail and messenger part? How? Thanks. Judy

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For some reason I believe you have to have a Windows Live account. It can be set up without Messenger. You would simply not download the messenger component. I would check on Windows Mailrather than Windows Live Mail. Windows Mail is available for Vista, whereas Outlook Express is used for XP. Windows Live Mail is the Win 7 optional mail.

You did not mention what version of Windows your friend has.

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I think you can setup an account without a Live id but I’m not sure. I don’t have access to a machine without WLM to try it.

Joe

--Joe

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For her sanity and mine, I would like to install Windows Live Mail on her new computer and opt out of any link to these online items. I can set it up to look very much like her old Outlook Express: Same preview pane, similar menu, similar type of settings. That way when she calls me I’ll be able to answer her questions pretty easily. And she will call.

Can WLM install without this coordination to the online mail and messenger part? How? Thanks. Judy

Are you talking about setting up WLM for use with an ISP, like say Comcast or something, and having Messenger installed separately for chat?

WLM can be setup independent of hotmail or the online Windows live service just like Outlook Express with any ISP.
Windows Messenger I don’t know about as I don’t use it. I suspect you can also use it independently.

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Hi, Ted, Joe and Clint.
She’ll be going to Windows 7, which is going to be a big adjustment for her by itself. Losing Outlook Express which is so familiar is going to be tough. She’s in her 80s.

I’d like to be able to stay with WLM because I have it, and try to do the WLM download and then get out if possible, without setting up any live, hotmail or other ID. It would make helping her so much easier. I too don’t have a machine to test it on. I’ve already got WLM on both of mine. Judy

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I’d like to be able to stay with WLM because I have it, and try to do the WLM download and then get out if possible, without setting up any live, hotmail or other ID. It would make helping her so much easier. I too don’t have a machine to test it on. I’ve already got WLM on both of mine.

On a new install of Windows Live Essentials once the installer is initialized you get to choose what client programs to install.

Joe

--Joe

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But then at some point when installing, if I remember correctly, it goes into signing in or signing up for a live ID screen. Judy

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Here is a Windows Live Mail tutorial for setting up an account with POP3 or IMAP
Read it over carefully, you should have no problem with it.

C

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I am certain that if you have a Hotmail account, you MUST already have a Windows Live ID.

When you install the Windows Live client, you can choose which bits you want to download and install: just choose Mail. see it all here http://download.live.com/

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Clint,
What a great tutorial! Thanks. I know several others who will love this.

Even though I already have it installed on my computer, I’m going to try again and download WLM and save it to my desktop rather than run it, and see if I can get it all downloaded and saved and get out of there without continuing with the sign in or sign up for a live identity part. Maybe I can just close the screen at that point. I think it might work. Thanks so much. Judy

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Here is a link to Windows Live Essentials.You can use any or all of it. I realize Windows Live Mail is different from Outlook Express, but my mother is also 80 and has adapted well to Live mail. It can be set up similarly to Outlook Express and is surprisingly easy to use. Along with Clint’s tutorial this may work.

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Judy,I know this is an outdated post I’m replying to, if it not been resolved read my post here plus the link in it.

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Hi, roderunner.
Outdated or not, all input gratefully accepted. Good links too. Thanks. Judy

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You do not need a Windows Live account or a hotmail account to use Windows Live Mail. I still think Outlook Express is the best even though I now use Live Mail. Somebody needs to make an OE that will work on Win 7 because so many of us still like it best. I have looked at other email programs and have not found one that really compares with what we had in Outlook Express.

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Hi, Linda.
There’s a lot to be said for familiarity. Myself, I really didn’t use it much. But I’m teaching some seniors and they’re all really attached. You are right, there should be an OE for Windows 7. Seems like the software companies like to keep us confused. Thanks for your reply. Judy

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The Windows Live Mail client is better than the old OE.
With the exception of some minor GUI changes, and some under the hood improvements, it’s nearly the same.

OE had, for a long long time, been so ready for the recycle bin.

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I have Windows Live installed, the full package, whatever that entails. I have been trying to figure out how to import all my OE email contacts and folders up to Windows Live and I can’t see how that has to be done. I have my contacts in a different folder than default, but when I try, it only wants to do one contact at a time, not acceptable. I also have contacts in Outlook 2000 with addresses that I would like to import to have everything together. I like OE and have used it forever. I have XP and SP3 on a Toshiba laptop. Thanks for any help. I looked at some of the tutorials and can’t really make sense of them. :~

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Hi, Ken.
When I had my old Outlook 2000, I found that in spite of not using OE for mail, I had to load the Outlook Express program in order to export my contacts to a .csv file. When I tried in Outlook, my .csv file was empty. I wasn’t able to export such a file from Outlook itself. Try opening Outlook Express and do the export from there. See if that doesn’t work. It shouldn’t matter where you have your contacts. It should see where they are, in your Outlook. In fact, I believe they may share the same contacts??? if that’s possible. Good luck. Judy

P.S. If I remember correctly, when I installed Windows Live Mail on my XP computer, it automatically found my contacts from OE and imported them. Seems it’s beneficial to move up to WLM while still using Outlook Express. Made it much easier then to export from WLM to the new computer with Windows 7 and WLM. If I remember correctly!!!!

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Thanks for your posts Judy… I’ve been a subscriber to WS for many years but this is my first visit to the Lounge.
I “piggybacked” all your posts concerning OE. I’m not 80 but I do get confused easily, and I miss OE on my
new Win7 box. I read all your posts and the replies. I had the same concerns and questions about Windows Live Mail.

I’ve been resisting bloatware since Win 3.1 but it’s a losing battle. I’m going to try one more email client that I saw
on another thread called: eM Client.

I’m hoping that I can turn off all the instant messaging and facebook-type options that everything seems to have now.

I particularly miss the tabs at the bottom of OE that let you view the html source of an email, edit it and save it the way you want it.
It was very handy for pasting parts of web pages…cleaning them up, and then saving the result as a small and simple html file.
You could also email the edited version to yourself and any images or other objects you wanted to include would be imbedded in
the email and not require a web connection.

Do you know if WLM still has that feature? eM Client claims to have a WYSIWYG editor, which is more than I need but I will
try the free version and post back with my impressions… maybe somebody else is as far behind as I am.

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Hi, benhenry.
Thanks for your reply. I’m curious when you try eM Client, if you would be so kind as to post your opinion on it. I have many from our computer class who are really upset about the impending loss of OE. I think it’s mainly what’s keeping many from upgrading their computers to Windows 7.

I’m kind of surprised that one of the Microsoft competitors haven’t developed an OE lookalike. Something open source, maybe? But I suppose Microsoft has it pretty locked down with the rights.

No, I haven’t looked for the source code feature on WLM. I’m using it successfully since February, and it seemed to import all my old data beautifully from my old Outlook mail. I had it backed up anyway, so wouldn’t have been a problem otherwise, but that’s why I’m thinking these people who will be upgrading to Windows 7 should upgrade from OE to WLM now while still on XP, if just for the smooth transfer of mail and contacts. Importing it into WLM later on a Windows 7 machine is so much easier.

I’ll wait to hear from you on this list regarding your success or failure with eM Client. Thanks. Judy

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I’ll wait to hear from you on this list regarding your success or failure with eM Client. Thanks. Judy

Hi again… Took me awhile to study up on all the ideas and suggestions from this thread. Thanks, all!

I gave up on eM Client; it was great in every way except editing and saving html.
This has become a hobby over the last few days, and it was fun; but I’m getting tired of all the installs and uninstalls of
email clients. So I made a decision. Thunderbird Portable is just what I was looking for…

I originally installed it to a usb drive and it worked flawlessly; so I installed it on my hard drive and it loads more quickly than any
of the others I tried. It can save an email as an html file without garbling the code and has more customization features than
I will ever use. But it’s nice to have the options.

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I think your computer class might be interested in eM Client

It is very similar to OE and it is lighter and faster than Thunderbird. It offers to automatically discover
account and server settings. It imports and exports from/to lots of apps and mail providers.

I especially liked how easily it imports and exports from/to local folders on your hard drive… so the
export to folder option is a quick copy-type backup.

It makes pretty html emails. But it munges the editing of received html in some cases. That is
disappointing to me; but probably not to normal people.

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Hi, benhenry.
It sounds like something I might try out during the summer. I have to give the class some recommendations in the fall when we resume classes, so if I have another alternative to WLM, it could be a good thing.

It makes pretty html emails. But it munges the editing of received html in some cases. That is
disappointing to me; but probably not to normal people.

I’ve never been accused of being normal people in my life!!! Thanks, Judy

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Hi, benhenry.
I found that to get the source code/header of an e-mail message in Windows Live Mail, you highlight the message in your inbox. Press Control and F3. A box opens up with the header/source code information. Hope that helps. Judy

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Thank you, Judy!

Sorry it took so long to find my way back… I’m still adjusting to win7. Jeez. Maybe George Orwell will turn out to be late, but right on.
I have to ask permission to do stuff on my own computer from my own computer.

Anyway… thanks for the path to the source code. But, darn. OE used to color code the html. Just a thing. But conveniently comfortable on the eyes.

eM Client updated itself on my box fairly smoothly; but an irritation has also popped up. The whole app has to load to view an eml file. And if you
close the main app… the separately opened email closes also. I’ll keep researching this. It might be that there is a setting to run in an independent process
or something. Or maybe the eml extension file association is broken somehow.

I do very much like how easily eM exports to any folder you like. Ironically, that feature will give me the incentive to completely uninstall it; try out Windows Mail
on a clean box, and then decide. Thanks again for the preview.

Ben

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Hi, benhenry.
I hope you like it. I guess I’ll just stick with WLM, now that I have it. Am at that age also that change isn’t always so good. Judy

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Have a look through this…
Windows Live Mail Tips, Tricks and Secrets
Color-Code Mail From a Particular Account in Live Mail or Outlook Express

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Hi, Clint.
What a resource, the tips and tricks!!!!! Fantastic. Thanks so much. I’ll pass that on to quite a few people.

The color code thing has me puzzled, though. In WLM, I have an inbox and separate folders for each of my accounts, which were set up when I added each account. I don’t see any mail coming into a joint inbox. Maybe there’s a setting to get it to use a joint inbox? I know Apple just added that feature in iOS 4.0, so I’m getting the messages all in a central inbox on my iPod Touch. Thanks again. Judy

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Hi, benhenry.
I’ve wanted to try Thunderbird, but as you say, hate the installing and uninstalling. I’m so glad you found one to your liking, and thanks for letting us know about your test of eM Client. Good luck. Judy

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