WinMail.exe never terminates; can't delete items from desktop

[Michael A. Covington]

I'm cross-posting because these 2 problems appeared at the same time (after
installing a lot of Windows XP application software) and may be related. I
am thinking of laboriously going back through a lot of restore points, but
would prefer some insight as to exactly what happened.

Windows Vista Ultimate on a Dell D830 with McAfee virus and e-mail
protection. For the first week or so, neither problem was present.

(1) Windows Mail (winmail.exe) does not terminate its process when I exit.
Thus I can't launch it again unless I either log out and log in again, or
manually kill the process.

Temporarily turning off McAfee e-mail scanning does not affect this.

(2) Whenever I delete anything from the desktop (whether my own desktop or
the All Users desktop), Explorer hangs with a message like "Recycling 1
item...". I hit Cancel and the message box becomes unresponsive. I can
still delete items from the desktop using Command Prompt and perhaps also in
other ways.

Any ideas?

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

I'm cross-posting because these 2 problems appeared at the same time
(after installing a lot of Windows XP application software) and may be
related. I am thinking of laboriously going back through a lot of restore
points, but would prefer some insight as to exactly what happened.

Windows Vista Ultimate on a Dell D830 with McAfee virus and e-mail
protection. For the first week or so, neither problem was present.

(1) Windows Mail (winmail.exe) does not terminate its process when I exit.
Thus I can't launch it again unless I either log out and log in again, or
manually kill the process.

Temporarily turning off McAfee e-mail scanning does not affect this.

(2) Whenever I delete anything from the desktop (whether my own desktop or
the All Users desktop), Explorer hangs with a message like "Recycling 1
item...". I hit Cancel and the message box becomes unresponsive. I can
still delete items from the desktop using Command Prompt and perhaps also
in other ways.

Uninstall McAfee and run this utility:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=4105&partner=McAfee&type=TS&ia=1

Don't replace it with Norton or Trend.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

It is set to 'compact' folders every so many uses. It may be trying to start
a compaction and something is corrupt.

You might be set to use the mail gadget.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936092/en-us

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Mark L. Ferguson
..

 

[Guest]

I'm cross-posting because these 2 problems appeared at the same time
(after installing a lot of Windows XP application software) and may be
related. I am thinking of laboriously going back through a lot of restore
points, but would prefer some insight as to exactly what happened.

Windows Vista Ultimate on a Dell D830 with McAfee virus and e-mail
protection. For the first week or so, neither problem was present.

(1) Windows Mail (winmail.exe) does not terminate its process when I exit.
Thus I can't launch it again unless I either log out and log in again, or
manually kill the process.

Temporarily turning off McAfee e-mail scanning does not affect this.

Most versions of the McAfee antivirus program tend to cause assorted
problems in Windows Mail, although seldom that fast. So do most versions
of the Norton antivirus program. A recent version of the Trend
antivirus program also caused assorted problems in Windows Mail.
Just turning of these programs seldom helps; they must be uninstalled
instead. After uninstalling the McAfee program, you often need to run
this cleanup program to take care of what the uninstall left behind:

<http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=4105&partner=McAfee&type=TS&ia=1>

You may even need to remove your email account under Windows
Mail, then restart Windows Mail and add the account again.

If you have the Google Toolbar installed, uninstall it. It also causes
problems in Windows Mail.

If you have any program with SMS in the name installed, tell us the
full name. Some of them also cause assorted problems in Windows
Mail.

If this solves your problem, you may want a replacement antivirus
program that doesn't cause such problems in Windows Mail.
I recommend either avast! or AVG, either one with a custom install
that tells it to leave out the part that scans email.

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0?prd=aff

(2) Whenever I delete anything from the desktop (whether my own desktop or
the All Users desktop), Explorer hangs with a message like "Recycling 1
item...". I hit Cancel and the message box becomes unresponsive. I can
still delete items from the desktop using Command Prompt and perhaps also
in other ways.

Any ideas?

Sorry, I'm not familiar with your second problem.