Windows live mail - what does it do?

EdwardTeach · 12 Apr 2011 at 12:38

Is it like it Outlook "light"?

Was considering putting it on my wifes netbook (Dell Duo).

Is it any good? if not what would you recommend as an alternative?

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Apr 2011 at 12:41

Try it yourself. If you don't like it don't use it.

Mr_Orange · 12 Apr 2011 at 12:42

It is basically outlook light. The best alternative is Thunderbird from the people who make Firefox. It's worth checking live mail out.

SiriusB · 12 Apr 2011 at 14:47

It is the new name for Outlook Express I think. So yes, its a Decaff Outlook

theheyes · 12 Apr 2011 at 18:55

It's ok. I find it better than Outlook Express which it did indeed replace. If you just want a mail client then go for it.

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Apr 2011 at 18:55

Windows Live Mail is a really nice gui and very friendly to all users.

RomanNose · 12 Apr 2011 at 21:10

Not as good as thunderbird.

EdwardTeach · 13 Apr 2011 at 20:49

What is it lacking vs outlook proper?

I am by no means an outlook power user, so I was wondering if I would notice much difference.

Duke · 13 Apr 2011 at 21:52

Its the replacment for Outlook Express. If you're already using Outlook then don't bother changing, but for general home users its fine.

EdwardTeach · 13 Apr 2011 at 22:29

I have outlook on my desktop, but was considering putting it on my wife's netbook (Dell Duo).

jonifen · 13 Apr 2011 at 23:39

If your wife has a hotmail/live mail account, it integrates really well into it so definitely try it. If she doesn't, then I'd probably recommend Thunderbird instead.

Stoner81 · 13 Apr 2011 at 23:47

+1 for Thunderbird. I use this with 6 or so Gmail accounts saves me a lot of time, there is also a free utility called MozBackup which allows you to back up all your settings from Thunderbird if you need to do a re-install.

Link for MozBackup ---> Click Me

Stoner81.

PS - The above link links to software which is Freeware even for commercial use.

CaptainCrash · 14 Apr 2011 at 00:34

One of the best things about Live Mail is the way it handles image attachments, which is unique in mail clients as far as I know - instead of actually attaching files in the regular way, it uploads them to your Live/Skydrive account and presents them to the recipient as thumbnails in the body of the mail, from where they can either download them or view them online as a slideshow.

This means there's effectively no limit to the number and size of photos you can "send" in a single email, unlike conventional attachments where your provider will usually limit you to a few megabytes, and you also don't run the risk of making yourself persona non grata by overloading the recipient's inbox.

Macro · 14 Apr 2011 at 09:07

Live mail handles multiple hotmail and gmail accounts for me pretty seamlessly, a really nice and for some reason underrated piece of software.

Rikki · 14 Apr 2011 at 09:28

Ive got about a 6gb PST file for Outlook 2003 here, maybe 50,000 emails with attachments, multiple folders etc

Will that work ok with Live Mail when I upgrade my PC ?

CaptainCrash · 14 Apr 2011 at 10:14

Rikki said:
Ive got about a 6gb PST file for Outlook 2003 here, maybe 50,000 emails with attachments, multiple folders etc

Will that work ok with Live Mail when I upgrade my PC ?

Unfortunately not, at least not directly - AFAIK the only way to import mail into Live Mail from Outlook is to go via Outlook Express as an intermediate step, but I'm not sure if that's even possible on a Win7 system.

I suppose a (sort of) way around it would be to create a Hotmail account, install the Outlook Hotmail Connector, transfer all the mail into Hotmail from within Outlook, wait for it to sync, create the account in Live Mail, then sync again... the trouble is, I've always found the Outlook connector to be slow and unreliable syncing large amounts of data, and I shudder to think how long it would take to sync 6GB. I doubt if it would be a realistic option in practice, although I guess you could just transfer the most important mails and leave the rest archived in Outlook.

I don't know why MS have chosen to make this so difficult, other than possibly wanting you to keep paying for subsequent versions of Outlook rather than using the (free) Live Mail.