2 Different Contact Lists in Windows Mail?

[Coccinelle]

Brand new to Vista and not a happy camper. Mainly I'm missing Outlook
Express and am very frustrated with Windows Mail so far, specifically the
Address Book or what they call Contacts. I can't believe I can't put my
hundreds of contacts into folders to better organize them. But that's not my
question. My question is as follows: When I hit "To:" in a new e-mail to
call up my contacts, a different list appears from the one that opens if I go
through Tools - Windows Contacts. This doesn't make any sense to me. Any
help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I assume you mean when you start typing in the To line, a different
set of contacts appears. That is known as the auto-complete function.
Windows Mail does not auto-complete from your contacts.
It uses a separate list of the last 29 recipients you've sent mail to.
The auto-complete feature works much better in the replacement
program, Windows Live Mail, which uses the standard contacts list.
You are encouraged to upgrade to the newer WLM program:
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

 

[Coccinelle]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry I suppose I wasn't clear enough in my original
post. I'm not referring to auto-complete at all. I'm talking about when you
have a blank New Message window open and want to add an e-mail address. You
can click on "To" or "Cc" and your list of e-mail Contacts appears with the
words "Select Recipients" at the top. However this list is different from
the list of contacts that opens when I click on Windows Contacts through the
Tools pull-down menu. I hope that's clearer this time around. I really
don't understand what's going on. Thank you.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Thanks for that clarification. Actually I understood you the first time, but I
assumed you misspoke because that scenario is highly unlikely.
I have never seen a different set of contacts come up under those two
circumstances. The only explanation I can conjure up is that somehow
your Contacts are not fully set to all their default associations. Try this:

Open the Default Programs applet, which you can access either from
the Start menu or via the Control Panel, then click the first item:
"Set your default programs."
After a few seconds, a list of programs comes up. Click on "Windows
Contacts". If it doesn't respond with "This program has all its defaults"
then fix it by clicking on the option indicated by the first green arrow.

 

[pokey]

Actually I have the exact same problem and when I asked about it I was told
simply that that should not happen. (The thread has dropped down the list
now.)
I looke dat the defaults and found the .vcf default is not checked because I
did not install Outlook. My Contacts are .contacts and that is checked. I
take it there is no way to re-direct the To: and Cc: buttons.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I don't know what causes that problem. It may be related to how your
contacts were imported from your previous computer.
The only sure fix I know about is to upgrade to Windows Live Mail:

http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

 

[pokey]

Thanks Gary, Mine was an in place upgrade, an adventure in itself and I did
have some issues with importing. But thought I was successful until this
issue popped up.
Is there a way to maybe re-install Windows Mail from the OS DVD?

 

[Coccinelle]

This will add to the mystery. Some of the e-mail addresses that appear in
the list when I click on "To" don't even exist in my Windows Contacts that I
access through the Tools menu. Some are old e-mail addresses that I no
longer need and had previously deleted. What's even more frustrating is that
I can't delete them thru the "To" menu and like I said they don't even show
up in Windows Contacts to delete from there. So now I've got this long,
annoying list of e-mail addresses to sift through, most of which I rarely or
never use anymore. Nothing like "improving" a perfectly good working program
like Outlook Express only to make it so much worse. I miss my old XP laptop.

Btw, Gary, I tried your earlier suggestion to re-set the Windows Contacts
defaults but it didn't make any difference to the issue I'm having. Thanks
for the suggestion though!

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

No, it is not possible to reinstall just Windows Mail.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

If you are talking about old recipients that appear when you start typing on
the To line, that is the auto-complete list. It can be edited with this tool:

http://www.winhelponline.com/articl...tly-used-email-addresses-in-Windows-Mail.html

 

[Coccinelle]

No, I'm not talking about the auto-complete list. That's not how I usually
assign an e-mail address to an e-mail. I click on the "To" and a list pops
up then I click on the address I want, then select "To", "Cc" or "Bcc". This
pop up list is the one I was saying has old deleted e-mails populating it.
Nevertheless, I tried your auto-complete edit tool but it didn't help. I've
hardly used Windows Mails (brand new laptop) so it had very few e-mails in
its auto-complete record.

Anyway, I appreciate your attempts to help me. I have a feeling I may be
stuck with it the way it is glitches and all.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Well, you're the second person in the past few days to experience this
particular problem. I'm not familiar with it, and have no idea what
could cause it, except perhaps something went wrong during the initial
import of contacts.

A sure way to fix that problem is to upgrade to Windows Live Mail:

http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview