How to reinstate WinMail onto Windows 8/10/11

[Nestor]

Installed Windows Mail on Windows 10 Pro following the directions
on Post #10 and works fine. The only problem is that I am checking
the box for emptying the Deleted Items folder upon exit and after
restarting none of my messages has been deleted while the box for
emptying the Deleted Items folder is unchecked.

Can someone please explain how to resolve this issue?

 

[endeavor]

Installed Windows Mail on Windows 10 Pro following the directions
on Post #10 and works fine. The only problem is that I am checking
the box for emptying the Deleted Items folder upon exit and after
restarting none of my messages has been deleted while the box for
emptying the Deleted Items folder is unchecked.

Can someone please explain how to resolve this issue?

Hello Nestor,

I'm sorry to say that there is no resolve for that issue.

Edit:
This issue has been now fixed, just rerun the tutorial:
How to reinstate WinMail onto Windows 8 or Windows 10

 

[Nestor]

Installed Windows Mail on Windows 10 Pro following the directions
on Post #10 and works fine. The only problem is that I am checking
the box for emptying the Deleted Items folder upon exit and after
restarting none of my messages has been deleted while the box for
emptying the Deleted Items folder is unchecked.

Can someone please explain how to resolve this issue?

Hello Nestor,

I'm sorry to say that there is no resolve for that issue.
If you follow the link on Post 10 that says "WinMail Bug List..." (in the 2nd paragraph I believe)
You will see that situation (among many) is listed there already.

You are just going to have to click the Delete button manually is all, no big deal.
I myself never even used that option anyway

Thanks endeavor. I'll follow your advice.

 

[Nestor]

Now installed Windows Mail on Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
and emptying the Deleted Items folder upon exit
works with no problems.

 

[BridgeHead]

Winmail Slow after 1607 update

After installing the anniversary update and copying over the Winmail folder, winmail fired right up, but seems to be slow in creating, replying or forwarding messages. I have tried to open up Calendar as I remember that working before but it has been little or no help. Any thoughts on what might be causing problems creating messages?

 

[endeavor]

After installing the anniversary update and copying over the Winmail folder, winmail fired right up, but seems to be slow in creating, replying or forwarding messages. I have tried to open up Calendar as I remember that working before but it has been little or no help. Any thoughts on what might be causing problems creating messages?

Hello BridgeHead,

Did you fresh install or update? ...not that it matters though, but if you did Everything Correctly, since I or no one else has any problems with it, then it has to be something else going on within your own installation that is affecting it.
It's nearly impossible for us to know what you may have done inadvertently to affect it, and so there's no sense of me making a lot of guesses with what little information you have provided.
I know one thing for sure though, if starting from a fresh install, meaning, where you have nothing else accidentally done interfering, it will work!

Let us know what it was when you find the culprit.

Have a good day.

 

[mikjoh]

It does not work on Creators update, v.1703, build 15063.

 

[Jody Thornton]

Isn't this for Windows 10? They have a full forum for that.

 

[endeavor]

@ Jody, it's fine. From the Ten Forums I always encourage and ask them to post in this thread to keep it all in one place, as I don't really have time to monitor two threads about the same thing. I hope that's okay and thank you for your understanding.

It does not work on Creators update, v.1703, build 15063.

mikjoh, Yes WinMail does work in the new Windows 10 build 15063 version - actually it has always worked in every new version released of Windows 10 so far.
I just installed it and posted my screenshot on post 1 screenshots section for proof.
mikjoh be sure to read thoroughly and follow all the information in the post #10 exactly ... Especially the Disclaimer!

The only thing different I noticed with this new Win10 build 15063 "when upgrading previous Win10 builds" is afterwards besides replacing the Windows Mail programs folder again, you Also have to copy the msidcrl30.dll to the System32 folder again because the upgrade removed it, I even re-merged the WinMailEdit.reg for good measure.
I've updated the tutorial in Post #1 to note that.

.

 

[jcc2]

Good day to all and greetings from Lima Peru !

First of all, my thanks to Endeavor for his magnificent help in making WindowsMail available to all of us that considered this client to be the best replacement to Outlook Express and has helped many many people to carry over their email through Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.

I am one of these people and have been able to make WindowsMail work all the way up to the build 16193.1001 of 32 bit Windows 10 Insider Preview without any issues (apart from the known bugs). But when I updated to the latest build - 16199.100 - it stopped working. It just would not open and there was no error message either. I then rolled back to version 16193.1001 and everything worked fine again, including the Vista version of Windows Calendar.

The one thing I noticed though was that through all the different moves from Vista to 10 build 16193.1001 the contents of the Windows Mail folder was the same in the number and names of files (8 files in the main program folder and 2 files in the language sub folder) but the Windows Mail folder in build 16199,1000 only had 5 files in the main folder and 2 in the language sub folder. If I recall correctly one of the missing files (sorry I didn't wrote down the name of the missing files) was winmail.exe and the other two missing files could have been the other 2 exe files (wabmig.exe and wab.exe).
I tried setting WindowsMail as default program for email applications and also uninstalled the Windows 10 Mail & Calendar app but no luck. One thing I did notice though was that the Windows Calendar (Vista Version) was working with no problems.

I hope this information will be be of use to Endeavor and the other forum members helping other users of this excellent program to solve these new hurdle !!!

Many thanks for your help and patience!

JCC2

 

[endeavor]

Good day to all and greetings from Lima Peru !

Hello and greetings to you jcc2 as well !
___________

I normally don't spend the time testing every Insider Preview, but I was curious this time..
My main tower I'm still on 14393 1607, where I usually only install major releases.

I took the time to install this 16199 version on the test bench tower.
Yes I noticed that very interestingly the default WM programs folder only had 3 files, where normally there are 8 plus the 2 in the subfolder.
That did not bother me so much at first, since we just delete and replace all of that anyway with the working ones, including adding msidcrl30.dll in the system32 folder, etc, and that gets her going.
..which of course I did all that, etc...

...however, this time, I can not get WinMail to start either.

I tried various ways to register the files removed, but it's probably not that simple..
I figured that some day WinMail on Windows 10 or so, would come to an end, but I just wasn't expecting it yet.
Maybe it's just this build, but I kind-of doubt it.

Let me think on and sleep on it for some days..

 

[jcc2]

Good day Endeavor and many thanks for your reply......

I tried several options same as you did but no luck.

As mentioned in my first post, I even uninstalled Windows 10 native Mail and Calendar app and set WindowsMail as the default program for email but nothing worked.

I realize Insider preview is a Beta - Test software and might change even more and eventually it might work again, but knowing that MS is not really keen on keeping another email program competing with Outlook or it's native mail app I imagine this will not be the case.

Maybe comparing the corresponding Register settings between build 16193 and 16199 might provide an idea of what has been modified and what it would take to make it work? Food for thought.

Once again, many thanks for your efforts Endeavor and let's hope we will see WindowsMail once again working in Windows 10.

Best regards,

JCC2

 

[endeavor]

Yes compared to a fresh iso install as I first did for you to check 16199, instead, if doing an upgrade from 93 to 99 provides a better opportunity to completely software track all the file/registry changes that were made between them; however as you can imagine with a version upgrade the changes were enormous overall.
In the past especially on Win7 or Win8 when a new single KB was installed and broke WM, it yielded a manageable amount of changes to be able to see its context and reverse what was needed to get WM back working again; however, with this whole version upgrade from 93 to 99, the amount of changes are considerable and therefore makes it much more difficult.

I've now done an iso fresh install of 16193 and got the OS all setup, etc, and then reinstated WinMail which works fine. I then upgraded it to 16199 and tracked the process, and now can see everything done in the upgrade between the two versions. I see what they did for WinMail, which actually removed nearly every single registry entry this time, even the thousand created by WinMail's first open process itself (not tutorial initiated) ..as well as all tutorial winmailedit initiated entries and everything else connected to the files removed which was more than usual. This is the FIRST time that MS has ever done that so completely, and I expect that in itself is very telling, of what we can expect going forward.

I'll have a longer look at it in the days to come, and try a few more various reverse maneuvers than I've already tried today, but I am more inclined to wait and see what they do with the next RTM, and if they still intend on neutralizing WinMail, then decide if for future Windows 10 versions if this is worth pursuing.
I'll just comment now that for what I've seen so far of what they did - seems intentional, and probably not just because of this one pre-release version, besides why would they.. ..and so for that reason it most likely will continue to carry forward. Time will tell though....

In the meantime I have updated Post #1 with 2 more OS installs with working WinMail screenshots.
Windows Server 2012-R2
....&
Windows 10 build 16193

.

 

[jcc2]

Completely agree with your assessment.....

Hi Endeavor.....

Once again, many thanks for your extraordinary work on this matter.
As you say, we will need to wait and see what happens with the new builds or the final RTM version and confirm that MS's intent is to completely neutralize WinMail and force users to Outlook or the native Mail and Calendar app in Windows 10, which by the way I have tried and didn't like at all and Outlook is just too much for normal email users.
I will keep trying with new builds and see if we get lucky.

Stay safe!

JCC2

 

[endeavor]

[.....]

As you say, we will need to wait and see what happens with the new builds or the final RTM version

Stay safe!

JCC2

I always wondered Why MS left the WinMail program on Windows 7, 8, and 10 anyway, and yet not utilize it. Maybe it was just built into their codebase and carried over, and so they left it there. Anyway people may not realize it was nearly fully integrated each time and the Only Reason why we could still re-work it to re-instate, and for that to MS I have been grateful.

It was even curious that the programs file versions and sizes kept getting continually upgraded with each new Win7/8/10 OS build (unless it's just an automatic process of it already being in the codebase) ..I could never find evidence though of them actually utilizing the program files within Win7/8/10

Maybe all the recent internet security problems, caused them to tighten up their base and remove it.

For Win10 on my main tower I'm still at version RTM 14393 and have no plans to move on, until necessary.
Along with Win10 I actively maintain Vista, Win8, and Win7. Actually I'm even booted to and posting this message from Win7 now.

Besides WinMail I also have Outlook 2003 and/or 2010 installed with Office, but, I do not have Outlook set as default and rarely open it. Yes I agree Outlook is too 'busy' and is more suited at the workplace in the Office environment; besides for me it does not have Newsgroup capability and that is a necessity as I use that feature for tech group access constantly. However I needed to have Outlook installed along side of WinMail at all times though of course to monitor compatibility testing between the two.

There have been a lot of email programs that try to emulate Outlook Express over the years, which morphed into WinMail and is all time my favorite ..but there are a few developers offering an Outlook Express type client of some sorts, and keep them actively updated. One is Outlook Express by RunAsXP.com which I think is a small donation to get a key, and then there is OE Classic by oeclassic.com is $24 ..but these mentions are not an endorsement and I've Not tested beyond a quick install to lookie see. When it comes to email clients out in the world though I am waaay behind in keeping up; but I won't have to worry about that for a long time to come.

~~~~~~

I've updated the tutorial screenshots again just to note WinMail in Win10 16199 is not able to be re-instated.
This is another reason why I did not want to replicate the WinMail Tutorial over to Ten Forums because of its uncertain longevity

 

[jcc2]

[/QUOTE]
Edit: 6/9/17 ...just an fyi

Sorry to say that WinMail on Windows 10 new build 16215 is not able to be re-instated either.

As you can see by my screenshot, besides Pro, I even fresh installed the Enterprise version just to check, but it did not matter.

I imagine it will be this way from now on for all new Windows 10 builds

Naturally for Windows 8 and Windows 7 ..WinMail users are unaffected...
[/QUOTE]

Endeavor beat me to the bad news (had problems downloading BLD 16215)... It seems Windows Mail will not work in any Insider build higher than 16193 but still works in Creators Update build 15063.332,

Tried Windows Live Mail 2012 and (although it s not my preferred option) it works fine o Insiders Build 16199 and will test it later today in 16215.

Stay safe!

JCC2

 

[tmthywynn8]

For an official source of Windows Mail's code being actually removed from Windows 10, see this list of removed or deprecated features. It was good while it lasted I suppose.
Edit: I know it says "Outlook Express," but that's what prompted me to look at this forum topic for verification in the first place.

 

[endeavor]

" Windows 10 list of removed or deprecated features "

..good source info tmthywynn8 thanks for the link.

Yes WinMail was an upgrade of Outlook Express, but I'm sure it was still called an OE base code.

We knew it was gone, but it's been officially announced as Removed from Windows 10
...and it only affects Windows 10 users beyond version 1703 build 16193

I see they 'Depreciated' Microsoft Paint in the list, I've always used that too.

PS, to reiterate, Windows 8 and Windows 7 WinMail users are of course unaffected..

 

[Ex_Brit]

As we replace all the folders in the process anyway, is it still not going to work in 10 beyond 1703? I mean Insider's Builds are unstable so may not work anyway.
Time will tell I guess. What a shame. We'll never see a "complete" OS ever again as I did in Vista Ultimate.
I always use Paint too, darn Microsoft, how can they justify charging for 10 is beyond me.
Anyway, as you say, Windows 7, 8/8.1 users need not worry, for now at least.

 

[endeavor]

No Peter it is not going to work anymore, sorry.
Go back and read my previous posts to catch up, where I've tried everything!

As you read in the article, the actual base code for WinMail to even operate those placed files has now been removed, and so no matter what we do on this level cannot reinstate as we have done in the past.

One would have to re-write an entire separate new mail application, and at that certainly could not infringe on any OE/WM copyrights of what was once there.