Hi, EW.
I'm not Gary, but...
I've been using WLM since the first of June. Yes, it is still in beta; the
current build is 12.0.1184. The WLM Team has hinted strongly that there
will be a new build Real Soon Now, with the final version still months away.
I used the now-defunct WLMD beta for only a few days at the end of its life,
just long enough to know that I like WLM better.
My impression is that the WLM User Interface still needs work, but the basic
program is already more stable and less buggy than WM. I was one of the
many WM users who had to painfully recover from a "message stuck in the
Outbox", but only a few WLM users report such a problem. The WLM UI won't
let us customize the toolbar and I really miss having buttons for
Synchronize All and View Messages by Conversation, for example. The WLM
Team is aware of these shortcomings and have promised improvements in future
builds. The UI is different from WM and will require a day or two on the
learning curve.
WLM's installation will delete the shortcut and icon for WM, but not the
program itself. We can still run WM by entering or clicking on WinMail.exe.
WM and WLM can run on the same Vista computer, even simultaneously, each
maintaining its separate Message Store. (During the transition period, I
have them both set to Leave messages on the server for 14 days; so long as I
run WM at least every couple of weeks and let it Receive messages, its
database will include all my incoming emails so that my eventual transfer to
the final WLM will be complete - so long as I remember to transfer WLM's
Sent Items, too.)
Try it. I think you'll like it. ;<)
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)