Alternative to Windows Mail?

[Ed M.]

I just switched to Vista and cannot get Windows Mail to work the way Outlook
Express did. The two major problems I am having are:

1) I have two email accounts – one personal and one for my business. In OE,
I simply set up two “identities†and selected the one I wanted to use.
Whatever identity I had selected would become the email address for outgoing
and incoming messages. Now all In messages are commingled. For outgoing, I
cannot figure out how to send from my business email – everything goes out
with my personal address in the from line. From reading the posts here, it
seems Microsoft requires that you create separate User Accounts for each
email account. This is rediculous.

2) For my personal email account, I kept multiple sets of addresses within
the Address Book. I had three: Personal, Church and a club I belong to.
When you created an email, OE has a pull down menu to select which set for
which you want to see the list of contacts. Apparently this feature is now
gone and when I imported all three sets were combined. It makes things very
unwieldy.

I have fought this for two days and have decided to throw in the towel on
Windows Mail and use something else. Any recommendations for a good mail
system that includes the above features?

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

You might find Windows Mail more agreeable after seeing this page (and
purchasing the reasonably-priced utility):
http://www.oehelp.com/WMIDs/Default.aspx

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

By default, all email from all accounts goes into the same Inbox.
There are three different ways of changing that:

1. Use message rules to filter incoming messages into
separate mail folders.

2. Upgrade to Windows Live Mail which has separate folders for each
account, no rules needed: http://download.live.com/wlmail

3. Purchase an add-on called WMIDs:
http://www.oehelp.com/WMIDs

 

[Phil]

If you have set up 2 separate accounts in Windows Mail, you can toggle
between those two addresses in the "From" line at the top of your outgoing
message .by clicking on the down-arrow at the far right of the "From" line.
When you click it, the drop-down menu should display the addresses of your
two accounts. Just click the one you want for that message. Good luck! Phil

 

[Ed M.]

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked it out and it looks like a good
possibility. I can't tell, though, if each identity has its own address book
like OE. Do you know?

Also, is it possible to just install a copy of OE? If so, how does one do it?

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

No, you cannot install OE in Vista.

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked it out and it looks like a good
possibility. I can't tell, though, if each identity has its own address
book like OE. Do you know?

Also, is it possible to just install a copy of OE? If so, how does one do
it?

 

[Ed M.]

WMID looks to be the most promising option for me. I have another question.
If I install this and create two identities, how does it work with multiple
Windows User Accounts? If I create 2 email Indtities under my User Account
will other User Accounts by able to see them as well? In other words, do all
Users see all identites in their MWID list?

Thanks for your suggestion and help.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Ed, let me see if I can get WMID's author, MVP Steve Cochran, to jump in
here & answer your questions. (If you've purchased WMID, you can email Dr.
Cochran directly for assistance.)

Link to thread:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...vista.mail/browse_frm/thread/690aa3cc81a74756

 

[Steve Cochran]

There is no separate address book for the different Identities with WMIDs.
Otherwise it operates as it did in OE. The Identities are on a per user
basis, so if you switch to another WIndows user, you have to set it up for
that user as one did in OE.

To install OE in Vista, you would have to install a valid version of XP (or
Win98 / WinMe / Win2000) in a Virtual machine and then you could run that
virtual machine inside of Vista and use OE that way.

steve

 

[Ed M.]

Excellent. I just placed my order and look forward to giving it a try.

 

[Steve Cochran]

Email me if there are issues.

cheers,

steve

Excellent. I just placed my order and look forward to giving it a try.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

[Thanks, Steve!]

There is no separate address book for the different Identities with WMIDs.
Otherwise it operates as it did in OE. The Identities are on a per user
basis, so if you switch to another WIndows user, you have to set it up for
that user as one did in OE.

To install OE in Vista, you would have to install a valid version of XP
(or
Win98 / WinMe / Win2000) in a Virtual machine and then you could run that
virtual machine inside of Vista and use OE that way.

steve

 

[Steve Cochran]

I emailed you back, but you munged the email and I was too lazy to change it
again.

steve

[Thanks, Steve!]

There is no separate address book for the different Identities with
WMIDs.
Otherwise it operates as it did in OE. The Identities are on a per user
basis, so if you switch to another WIndows user, you have to set it up
for
that user as one did in OE.

To install OE in Vista, you would have to install a valid version of XP
(or
Win98 / WinMe / Win2000) in a Virtual machine and then you could run that
virtual machine inside of Vista and use OE that way.

steve