WHEN WILL WINDOWS MAIL IMPROVE

[Lynn]

I had to give up my Outlook when I got new computer with Vista. The Outlook
program would not run, would freeze up, so I defaulted to the limited
program, Windows Mail.

When will missing features be addressed for those of us who have given up
Outlook with Vista because of difficulties?

I miss
1. Rules for outgoing messages, rules with altnernative arguments, etc.
2. I miss search capabilities that include options with alternative
arguments.
3. Signatures are no longer working as before, cannot edit or improve the
look of my signatures as I could before.
4. Advanced editing options in mail.

 

[mac]

I had to give up my Outlook when I got new computer with Vista. The
Outlook
program would not run, would freeze up, so I defaulted to the limited
program, Windows Mail.

When will missing features be addressed for those of us who have given up
Outlook with Vista because of difficulties?

I miss
1. Rules for outgoing messages, rules with altnernative arguments, etc.
2. I miss search capabilities that include options with alternative
arguments.
3. Signatures are no longer working as before, cannot edit or improve the
look of my signatures as I could before.
4. Advanced editing options in mail.
--

Support for WM in Vista ceased a long time back, all resources where
transferred to the development of WLM.
Download it free from http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

Outlook 2003 + will work in Vista, prior versions are reported to cause
problems.

 

[Mickey Segal]

Windows Mail will not be improved. It is being phased out in favor of the
glitzier Windows Live Mail, which is fine for large screens but close to
useless on a smaller screen (as detailed at www.segal.org/tablet/live/).

The major annoyances I've found with Windows Mail are its tendency to pin
CPU use to 100% and its tendency to crash if you are using antivirus
programs (the advice is to turn antivirus programs off, which is apparently
not as risky as it sounds because the antivirus programs tend to catch the
problems at later stages).

 

[Steve Cochran]

If you want improvements to Windows Mail, this is not the forum to request
such.

You can contact MS directly at:

Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
US

Or phone them:

US: 425-882-8080
(800) 426-9400

Or not US: see the contact pages for your Country at
www.microsoft.com/worldwide

Contacting them and expressing your problems with Winmail is the only way to
get them to pay attention to the issues and perhaps address them.

steve

 

[Paul Smith]

First up this is a newsgroup not a forum. Although this isn't an official
support channel some things do get passed back to Microsoft.

However in this case Windows Mail is dead and has been replaced by Windows
Live Mail, which is much better.

As for the original poster having trouble with Outlook, 2003 and up is
supported. I believe XP and up works but requires the user to enter their
password when connecting to a mail server.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Desktop Experience.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Steve Cochran]

First up this is a newsgroup not a forum. Although this isn't an official
support channel some things do get passed back to Microsoft.

A forum is a place where there is an exchange of information. This is a
forum.

However in this case Windows Mail is dead and has been replaced by Windows
Live Mail, which is much better.

That is a matter of opinion. I've been an MVP for OE and WinMail for 11
years and WinMail is not DEAD. Just look at all the people posting here and
also it is included with Server 2008, which is also not DEAD. You can also
check the number of visitors to my Windows Mail utility page
(www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/) to verify that. Just because a bunch of posters
(MVPs or not) parrot the MS line doesn't make the program dead and doesn't
fix the thousands of users' problems resultant from MS's lack of concern for
the user.

Those who think WLM is "much better" can stop posting here because this is a
"Dead" forum for you. Those of use who actually use WinMail are using this
forum to help those other users.

steve

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Windows Mail is dead in the sense that no development has been done
to it since about October 2006. No new fixes or features will be forthcoming.

It is not surprising that Windows Mail was included with Server 2008 since
the latter has almost the same code base as Vista.

As long as people continue to use Windows Mail, I will continue to support
them, even though I think Windows Live Mail is a better program overall.

 

[Steve Cochran]

My response came out a bit stronger than I intended. After over 11 years of
having answered NG questions on OE and WinMail and after having worked with
MS developers to improve the product throughout the develpment of Longhorn
and Vista, I was quite disappointed to see them move in the direction they
are now going and abandon a great program for what they are now advocating.

If you think WLM is a better program, then why are you using Windows Mail

X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6001.18000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6001.18049

cheers,

steve

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I use Windows Live Mail for email, and Windows Mail for newsgroups.