Weird happenings with my Windows Mail

[Wrinkly]

3 days ago my Windows Mail disappeared. All I had left in the Local Folders
column was Inbox. Inbox wouldn’t open and Sent, Deleted and Outbox etc were
missing. The only info I had was when I tried to send a message out – it said
“The message could not be sent. An error has occurred.†Then – ‘Get help from
the communities.’ Not much help! The rest of my system appeared normal and I
found I still had the mail in Yahoo/Mail. That was a relief.
An hour or so later the WM appeared normal again. I didn’t see the event but
when I went to WM it was all there.
Since then the problem has happened again – 3 times – and inevitably I
haven’t much confidence in its present state of health..
My WM is set up for 4 accounts between 2 people. Everything is Yahoo and
there are 2 passwords in use.
I have investigated WLM but it doesn’t seem to like Yahoo, but that might be
another posting another day when – hopefully – my WM has been sorted.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Steve Cochran]

You might check for 3rd party programs such as antivirus software
interference. See point 3 here: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 Also try
running the repair feature of my Windows Mail utility
(www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/)

steve

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

That symptom is usually caused by interference from an antivirus
program. Which antivirus are you running?
As a minimum, email scanning in the antivirus should 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.

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

If no improvement after disabling email scanning, consider upgrading
to Windows Live Mail, because it is less prone to suffering bad effects
from overly intrusive antivirus programs:
http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

[Wrinkly]

Thank you both.

I am running AVG Freeware v 8.5.409 and updates are set for automatic. All
scanning is operative - including e-mails.
I cannot see how to turn off e-mail scanning by a simple single click so I
looked at Tools/advanced settings. In there e-mail scanner shows (minus in a
square) and Servers the same. Further down both Pop3 and SMTP have plusses in
the square. Please advise on exactly what I do here. Sorry if the questions
are basic but I want to be sure before I take action.

I have seen previously your advice about e-mail scanning and am willing to
be persuaded even though it seems contarary to all I have been advised by so
many people for so long when all the stress is on keeping the protection
going.

Following Steve's advice I downloaded the Malicious Software Removal Tool,
ran it and was given a full bill of health by it.

Re Service Pack 1 that he mentioned. That came through to me yesterday as a
download - after the first instances of my problem. I do try to keep my
software up to date.

Re the point of going on to WLM. I want to but as I said I have found that
it and Yahoo - in my experience - don't get on well. This is something I am
trying to work towards. Would any advice from you include stopping using WM
completely and switching to WLM?

As I write Windows Mail is in a complete mess again.

Regards,

H

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Simply disabling the AVG mail scanning is not effective.
Your AVG antivirus was probably installed with its default install option.
If so, uninstall it, then reinstall, but select 'custom' install, which then
allows you to unselect installing its troublesome email scanning module.

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

The email scanning function is included in the AV product because all
the competitors include it, and it makes for another bullet on the box for
gullible buyers.

Even Symantec (Norton), the originator of the email scanning concept
admits that it is redundant and unnecessary:

"Is my computer still protected against viruses if I disable Email Scanning?
Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses
that are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect
scans incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email
and email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of this.
To make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection, keep
Auto- Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you have
the most recent virus definitions."

The above paragraph is from http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2002111812533106
Check it out.

 

[Wrinkly]

Later:-

I have stopped using e-mail scanning on WM. So far it is OK but it is
probably too early to be 100% certain. I'll post again in a few days time as
an update.

Having looked in more detail at the Windows Live Mail option I can now see
the obvious fact I had overlooked earlier. My Yahoo is the free version but
WLM will take only the subscription Yahoo. At least I now am clear what the
explanation is.

Many thanks to you both for your patience with an elderly Englishman and his
problems.

All the best.

H

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

You're very welcome.