Why can't I sign into my account?

[Georgette]

I've been trying to sign into my account, but it keeps asking me for my
windows password. I never had one or needed one until today. What's going on?

 

[Richard in AZ]

I've been trying to sign into my account, but it keeps asking me for my
windows password. I never had one or needed one until today. What's going on?

You are writing in the Window Mail newsgroup, but you refer to a "windows password".

You email account has always required a password that was agreed upon by you and your ISP.
Most of the time, your email program remembers your password and does not ask you for it.
But now it is.

This password is not the same one you would log into Windows Vista with.
However, there could be a problem with Windows Mail remembering your password now.
see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290684/en-us

It could also be your antivirus program causing you problems.
Give some more details and someone will help you.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

You need to distinguish between the optional password each Windows user
can have in order to gain access to Windows, and the Username & Password
(two different things) that are associated with each email account.

If you have forgotten the latter credentials, you will need to call your email
service provider.

 

[Georgette]

Well I sign in through my providers website through internet explorer and my
username and password works just fine. Why isn't it working for windows mail?
It was working fine before.

 

[Georgette]

Thank you Gary, I will try that right now.

You need to distinguish between the optional password each Windows user
can have in order to gain access to Windows, and the Username & Password
(two different things) that are associated with each email account.

If you have forgotten the latter credentials, you will need to call your email
service provider.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

If you are sure you are using the correct username and password,
one possible cause for that error is account corruption. One thing
you might try as a possible quick fix is to delete that corrupted
account, restart Windows Mail, then recreate that mail account.
If that doesn't fix it, more drastic measures will have to be taken.

Which antivirus are you running?
As a minimum, email scanning in the antivirus must be turned off,
although that may not be sufficient to eliminate all bad effects.
In a worst case scenario, your antivirus may need to be uninstalled.

If turning off the email scanning function does not resolve your problem,
consider upgrading to Windows Live Mail, because it is less prone to
suffering bad effects from overly aggressive antivirus programs.
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

Email scanning in any antivirus must be disabled, for reasons
explained here:
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Also see my response of a few minutes ago.