A new bug in Windows Mail - version for 64-bit Vista SP2?

G

Guest

I've been seeing a consistent problem with Windows Mail lately,
the version for 64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2. Whenever I
try to enter a storage folder with 126891 unread news messages
(mainly to divide up the contents of the folder), Windows Mail
stops working correctly and offers me a chance to send in more
information along with the bug report.

When I enter a different folder with 73181 unread news messages,
things are a little slow but otherwise normal.

Some of the other problems I've seen on the same machine
suggest that a collection of programs compiled to run in 32-bit
mode cannot make full use of the 8 GB of memory this machine
has; only the lowest 4 GB, all that 32-bit addresses can address
directly. Is it true that Vista lacks the memory mapping needed
to run 32-bit mode programs at addresses above the lowest 4
GB? Also, is is true that the version of Windows Mail that
comes with 64-bit Vista has at least some part that must run in
32-bit mode?

When I have a set of BOINC programs running, with permission
to use up to 4 GB of memory, it could easily come close to
exhausting the lowest 4 GB of memory, since most of the
BOINC workunit programs were compiled to run in 32-bit
mode. However, neither BOINC nor Vista seems to offer
any memory restrictions specific to the use of the lowest 4 GB.

I've seen enough problems reported in the
microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop newsgroup with
the Windows Live Mail user interface that I'm hesitant to
consider switching to that program. In particular, some of the
problem reports refer to functions controlled with buttons
labelled only with symbols, not with words. Since I'm rather
slow at learning the meaning of symbols not labelled with words,
I want to avoid using any programs that use such symbols.
Does the WLM program have the option of making labels of
the symbols appear in words, perhaps only when the cursor
is close enough to the symbol?

Or, is there any other workaround for splitting up such a large
folder of unread news messages?

Robert Miles
 
G

Gary VanderMolen

You've got that backwards. The latest Windows Live Mail
version has text labels only for the major buttons on its toolbar.
 
W

wendy rodriguez

I've been seeing a consistent problem with Windows Mail lately,
the version for 64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2. Whenever I
try to enter a storage folder with 126891 unread news messages
(mainly to divide up the contents of the folder), Windows Mail
stops working correctly and offers me a chance to send in more
information along with the bug report.

When I enter a different folder with 73181 unread news messages,
things are a little slow but otherwise normal.

Some of the other problems I've seen on the same machine
suggest that a collection of programs compiled to run in 32-bit
mode cannot make full use of the 8 GB of memory this machine
has; only the lowest 4 GB, all that 32-bit addresses can address
directly. Is it true that Vista lacks the memory mapping needed
to run 32-bit mode programs at addresses above the lowest 4
GB? Also, is is true that the version of Windows Mail that
comes with 64-bit Vista has at least some part that must run in
32-bit mode?

When I have a set of BOINC programs running, with permission
to use up to 4 GB of memory, it could easily come close to
exhausting the lowest 4 GB of memory, since most of the
BOINC workunit programs were compiled to run in 32-bit
mode. However, neither BOINC nor Vista seems to offer
any memory restrictions specific to the use of the lowest 4 GB.

I've seen enough problems reported in the
microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop newsgroup with
the Windows Live Mail user interface that I'm hesitant to
consider switching to that program. In particular, some of the
problem reports refer to functions controlled with buttons
labelled only with symbols, not with words. Since I'm rather
slow at learning the meaning of symbols not labelled with words,
I want to avoid using any programs that use such symbols.
Does the WLM program have the option of making labels of
the symbols appear in words, perhaps only when the cursor
is close enough to the symbol?

Or, is there any other workaround for splitting up such a large
folder of unread news messages?

Robert Miles
 
G

Guest

I've been seeing a consistent problem with Windows Mail lately,
the version for 64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2. Whenever I
try to enter a storage folder with 126891 unread news messages
(mainly to divide up the contents of the folder), Windows Mail
stops working correctly and offers me a chance to send in more
information along with the bug report.

When I enter a different folder with 73181 unread news messages,
things are a little slow but otherwise normal.

Some of the other problems I've seen on the same machine
suggest that a collection of programs compiled to run in 32-bit
mode cannot make full use of the 8 GB of memory this machine
has; only the lowest 4 GB, all that 32-bit addresses can address
directly. Is it true that Vista lacks the memory mapping needed
to run 32-bit mode programs at addresses above the lowest 4
GB? Also, is is true that the version of Windows Mail that
comes with 64-bit Vista has at least some part that must run in
32-bit mode?

When I have a set of BOINC programs running, with permission
to use up to 4 GB of memory, it could easily come close to
exhausting the lowest 4 GB of memory, since most of the
BOINC workunit programs were compiled to run in 32-bit
mode. However, neither BOINC nor Vista seems to offer
any memory restrictions specific to the use of the lowest 4 GB.

I've seen enough problems reported in the
microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop newsgroup with
the Windows Live Mail user interface that I'm hesitant to
consider switching to that program. In particular, some of the
problem reports refer to functions controlled with buttons
labelled only with symbols, not with words. Since I'm rather
slow at learning the meaning of symbols not labelled with words,
I want to avoid using any programs that use such symbols.
Does the WLM program have the option of making labels of
the symbols appear in words, perhaps only when the cursor
is close enough to the symbol?

Or, is there any other workaround for splitting up such a large
folder of unread news messages?

Robert Miles

I tried installing WLM; it's now installed, but was able to import
only abour half of the messages stored in Windows Mail,
including about half of those in the problem directory, before
it froze. Is there any way to tell it to delete what it imported,
then try the import again?

Eventually I hit on a workaround for the problem. First, I
tried forcing a compression of the Windows Mail database.
This could fix the problem for some such problem directories,
but not this one; it did, however allow Windows Mail to get
about 80% of the way through loading that folder before it
stopped running, instead of only 50%. Then, for some reason,
I entered that folder after setting the previous folder to use a
view without my usual Group Messages by Conversation
and with the sort order set to show the largest messages
at the top instead of the usual order by the date and time the
message was received - those settings were essentially copied
to the problem directory and the problem was gone until I
tried changing the settings back to usual. I then started this
method again, but while still set to show the largest messages
at the top and without grouping the messages by conversation,
I first looked at the largest messages, found few were worth
reading, deleted many of the largest messages, then used the
usual method of moving messages to another folder to move
the rest in arbitrary groups to 6 new folders (with fewer that
50000 going to each new folder, since I haven't seen the same
problem in directories with that few messages), then used the
usual method to divide the messages in those new folders by
what year they were sent and move them to year-specific
subfolders of a new folder for that newsgroup.

This suggests that the bug is either in the part of the Windows
Mail program that groups messages by conversation, or the
part that sorts them by date and time sent; it can't handle
that many messages. Any idea if Windows Mail uses some
DLLs for those that are shared by other programs, and
therefore still likely to get updates?

Robert Miles
 
G

Gary VanderMolen

WLM should have placed the imported messages in folders
under Storage Folders. You can selectively delete the folders
that contain only garbage. Then you can selectively re-import
some folders from WM. In WLM: File, Import, Messages,
Windows Mail.
 

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