Importing Hotmail Possible at all?

[Meehan Mydog]

Hi,

I do not have Vista, or Windows Mail, or Hotmail, so I'm flying a bit
blind here...

I have an acquaintance who has Vista, but does all her emailing via Hotmail.

Recently, she has had some problems with the Hotmail service, and she
has asked me if it is possible for her to change to the mail program
that comes with Vista. (Windows Mail?)

The snag is, she would like to import the contents of of all her
web-based Hotmail folders, (her email messages in other words), and her
Hotmail contacts into whatever email program she changes to.

1. Would this be possible with Windows Mail, or does she need to write
off all her Hotmail stuff and start again from scratch?

2. If it is not possible with Windows Mail, is it possible with any
other email client, such as Thunderbird or similar?

Thanks in advance,
Meehan Mydog
Cheshire, UK

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Hotmail accounts in Windows Mail must be set up manually.
Windows Mail will only handle Hotmail via the POP protocol,
which means the user will not see any web folders other than Inbox.
Also, by default WM will remove downloaded messages from the
server, thereby making them unavailable via the web interface.
Although it is possible to change that default, many users forget
to do so the first time around, resulting in thousands of messages
being downloaded and removed from the webmail server.

Windows Live Mail will set up the user's Hotmail account automatically.
Since it uses the HTTP protocol for Hotmail, all web folders will be
mirrored on the local machine.

To upgrade to Windows Live Mail: http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

[Meehan Mydog]

Hotmail accounts in Windows Mail must be set up manually.
Windows Mail will only handle Hotmail via the POP protocol,
which means the user will not see any web folders other than Inbox.
Also, by default WM will remove downloaded messages from the
server, thereby making them unavailable via the web interface.
Although it is possible to change that default, many users forget
to do so the first time around, resulting in thousands of messages
being downloaded and removed from the webmail server.

Windows Live Mail will set up the user's Hotmail account automatically.
Since it uses the HTTP protocol for Hotmail, all web folders will be
mirrored on the local machine.

To upgrade to Windows Live Mail: http://download.live.com/wlmail

So all I need to do on her machine is just download and install Windows
Live Mail, and then sit back and it will do it all automatically?

Forgive my suspicious nature but, in Microsoft terms, that sounds almost
too good to be true!

I don't think she's ever used Windows Mail. Will upgrading to Windows
Live Mail uninstall that, and replace it with itself? I mean, is one the
direct replacement of the other?

Cheers,
Meehan

 

[Matt Walker]

Definitely do the Windows Live Mail option. Imports everything from Hotmail
including folders and calendar. I've been enjoying this for the last 3
days. Should have done it sooner.

Matt Walker

 

[Meehan Mydog]

Thanks to you both for clarifying this for me. Looks like it won't be as
big a job as I thought.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Meehan.

I don't think she's ever used Windows Mail. Will upgrading to Windows Live
Mail uninstall that, and replace it with itself? I mean, is one the direct
replacement of the other?

WM cannot be uninstalled from Vista. WLM will not replace it, but will
install alongside it. They will not interfere with each other. WLM will
automatically set itself to replace WM as the default mail and news handler.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

 

[Meehan Mydog]

Hi, Meehan.


WM cannot be uninstalled from Vista. WLM will not replace it, but will
install alongside it. They will not interfere with each other. WLM
will automatically set itself to replace WM as the default mail and news
handler.

RC

Ah. Thanks.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

That's pretty much all there's to it.
Windows Live Mail when first started up will ask her for her Hotmail
email address and name, the rest is automatic.

--
Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/profile/vandermolen

Gary VanderMolen wrote: [snip]

To upgrade to Windows Live Mail: http://download.live.com/wlmail

So all I need to do on her machine is just download and install Windows
Live Mail, and then sit back and it will do it all automatically?

Forgive my suspicious nature but, in Microsoft terms, that sounds almost
too good to be true!

I don't think she's ever used Windows Mail. Will upgrading to Windows
Live Mail uninstall that, and replace it with itself? I mean, is one the
direct replacement of the other?

Cheers,
Meehan

 

[Canuck57]

Hi,

I do not have Vista, or Windows Mail, or Hotmail, so I'm flying a bit
blind here...

I have an acquaintance who has Vista, but does all her emailing via
Hotmail.

Recently, she has had some problems with the Hotmail service, and she
has asked me if it is possible for her to change to the mail program
that comes with Vista. (Windows Mail?)

The snag is, she would like to import the contents of of all her
web-based Hotmail folders, (her email messages in other words), and her
Hotmail contacts into whatever email program she changes to.

1. Would this be possible with Windows Mail, or does she need to write
off all her Hotmail stuff and start again from scratch?

2. If it is not possible with Windows Mail, is it possible with any
other email client, such as Thunderbird or similar?

Thanks in advance,
Meehan Mydog
Cheshire, UK

I am having great luck with Thunderbird. Unlike Microsoft products it
works well with the likes of Google (GMail) and others like it.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=75725

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

I just wasted too much time and annoyances with MS mail incompatibiltiies.