How to reinstate WinMail onto Windows 8/10/11

Just a shout out to the well organized reinstallation procedure in this forum. Recently set up a new Windows 10 computer and getting Winmail running was a snap. It took a couple days to copy over the Winmail folder from Appdata from the other computer and a couple hours digging up and changing passwords, but when all was completed, it is running like a champ.

It's good to hear of your success BridgeHead, and thanks for the reply!

When following the Backup & Restore 1, 2, 3, Procedure and when making a zip/rar backup of the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail folder to distribute it, it should take no more than a few minutes at the most even for the largest copy of stores. And of course for the passwords, one should just have them pre-saved already in a text file somewhere safe, makes for an easy copy/paste into that account tab(s). The entire Backup or Restore process should just take 10 minutes or less.

Anyway, I'm glad you're back up and running.

I myself still swap my entire WinMail setup from one computer and/or different OS to another quite often. Actually I just did it this morning because I needed to restore my OS partition back to last month using backup partition imaging for that, but of course I wanted to keep all my current email store since then, so I simply did the WinMail Backup Procedure 1, 2, 3, of current, and then restored my OS partition, and then did the WinMail Restore 1, 2, 3 Procedure on it to bring that month old OS image restored - back up to WinMail current time frame.
 
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@endeavor bro i have a strange problem. I installed thunderbird for oeprational test for company. And i uninstalled it. And after then "SendTo/MailRecpient" option says "there is no default mail program". I can use WinMail properly in every way, but when i goto "Default Programs" section. There is no option to see "Windows Mail" there... How can i set it as default like it used to... ?
 

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    MSI Katana
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    i5 12th gen
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    Various
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    Firefox of course ;)
    Antivirus
    ESET
I installed thunderbird for oeprational test for company. And i uninstalled it. And after then "SendTo/MailRecpient" option says "there is no default mail program". I can use WinMail properly in every way, but when i goto "Default Programs" section. There is no option to see "Windows Mail" there... How can i set it as default like it used to... ?

You will need to reverse whatever Thunderbird did when it took over your defaults, which most likely are just registry entries.
Hopefully it will be easy for you, it depends on your knowledge of the few various restore ways to do it.
First place to start though, is to look back at Post #2 on this thread again, and open the first few spoilers there where I show some screenshots of things to do: re: How to set WinMail as the Default Mail Client, etc. (I'm not sure if you'll also need to do Step 14 first though, it depends)
 
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  • OS
    Vista/Win7/Win8/Win10/Win11 (x86/x64)
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    ..including W98SE/WXP
    No VM's ..all OS's are live
You will need to reverse whatever Thunderbird did when it took over your defaults, which most likely are just registry entries.
Hopefully it will be easy for you, it depends on your knowledge of the few various restore ways to do it.
First place to start though, is to look back at Post #2 on this thread again, and open the first few spoilers there where I show some screenshots of things to do: re: How to set WinMail as the Default Mail Client, etc. (I'm not sure if you'll also need to do Step 14 first though, it depends)
i tested and re-applied some steps. Also i checked every registry entries (from my other w10 thinkpad) and tried to do same in this notebook (msi-katana) but nothing changed. It shows "winmail is the default" in every way, but still when i use the rightclick menu, it's not working at all. Anyway, i gave up. Checking my mails and replies + using NNTP client is fairly enough for me. Thanks for answering. Maybe i should move to TB in slow way...
 

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    Win10 Pro 21H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MSI Katana
    CPU
    i5 12th gen
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    RTX 3050
    Sound Card
    O/B
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15' built in, 22' vga external
    Screen Resolution
    1920
    Hard Drives
    512GB SSD
    Mouse
    A4Tech
    Internet Speed
    Various
    Browser
    Firefox of course ;)
    Antivirus
    ESET
i tested and re-applied some steps. Also i checked every registry entries (from my other w10 thinkpad) and tried to do same in this notebook (msi-katana) but nothing changed. It shows "winmail is the default" in every way, but still when i use the rightclick menu, it's not working at all. Anyway, i gave up. Checking my mails and replies + using NNTP client is fairly enough for me. Thanks for answering. Maybe i should move to TB in slow way...

When you installed Thunderbird you must of let it set itself to the default email client, and so that took over WinMail, and so you would need to reverse that process by going into TB and set it not be default. Or, also you could of just uninstalled TB afterwards, if that did not do it, then you could also reset/restore your registry back one day to undo whatever it did before you installed it, but by now those reg backups ''may'' be out of date, it depends. I personally always make an OS partition image backup before I install any software to test, that way if I don't like something I can just image back my OS right away in a few short minutes, is quicker than anything else to do, and everything is back to original. I also extra, track all registry/software changes that any software installs I make, that way I can also have the opportunity and alternative to selectively reverse what does not get put back by an install. This should all be normal practice for an advanced user as yourself being in IT for your company.
Anyway in order for me to figure it out at this point, I would have to take the time to install TB, and and then try to reproduce what you did, to track it down. However that is for you to do. It has to be something very simple though. I will say again to everyone to Always create all OS partition backups, and WM backups before you do any testing! ..it's so easy, and saves you from so much hassle going forward.

PS
It shows "winmail is the default" in every way,
Don't forget when you go into that Windows Default Apps section which I show in that first Post 2 Screenshot there for setting WinMail Default, and at this point you can go back now to toggle those same settings from Windows Mail / Thunderbird, and toggle them, on/off, back-n-forth, to see if that resets it.

Also

Also, as an extra check open WinMail, go up to Tools> Options> General Tab, and make sure on the bottom of this GUI, both of those buttons you need to click to set them Default, and when set, they will be greyed out like this screenshot here:
 

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  • OS
    Vista/Win7/Win8/Win10/Win11 (x86/x64)
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ..all towers built from scratch
    CPU
    i7's
    Other Info
    ..including W98SE/WXP
    No VM's ..all OS's are live
When you installed Thunderbird you must of let it set itself to the default email client, and so that took over WinMail, and so you would need to reverse that process by going into TB and set it not be default. Or, also you could of just uninstalled TB afterwards, if that did not do it, then you could also reset/restore your registry back one day to undo whatever it did before you installed it, but by now those reg backups ''may'' be out of date, it depends. I personally always make an OS partition image backup before I install any software to test, that way if I don't like something I can just image back my OS right away in a few short minutes, is quicker than anything else to do, and everything is back to original. I also extra, track all registry/software changes that any software installs I make, that way I can also have the opportunity and alternative to selectively reverse what does not get put back by an install. This should all be normal practice for an advanced user as yourself being in IT for your company.
Anyway in order for me to figure it out at this point, I would have to take the time to install TB, and and then try to reproduce what you did, to track it down. However that is for you to do. It has to be something very simple though. I will say again to everyone to Always create all OS partition backups, and WM backups before you do any testing! ..it's so easy, and saves you from so much hassle going forward.

PS

Don't forget when you go into that Windows Default Apps section which I show in that first Post 2 Screenshot there for setting WinMail Default, and at this point you can go back now to toggle those same settings from Windows Mail / Thunderbird, and toggle them, on/off, back-n-forth, to see if that resets it.

Also

Also, as an extra check open WinMail, go up to Tools> Options> General Tab, and make sure on the bottom of this GUI, both of those buttons you need to click to set them Default, and when set, they will be greyed out like this screenshot here:
Both are grey already but still when i try to use "right click menu" still TB runs. I will find the way or should i wait for w11 installation :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win10 Pro 21H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MSI Katana
    CPU
    i5 12th gen
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    RTX 3050
    Sound Card
    O/B
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15' built in, 22' vga external
    Screen Resolution
    1920
    Hard Drives
    512GB SSD
    Mouse
    A4Tech
    Internet Speed
    Various
    Browser
    Firefox of course ;)
    Antivirus
    ESET
Both are grey already but still when i try to use "right click menu" still TB runs. I will find the way or should i wait for w11 installation :)
Win 11 will not solve your problem, quite the contrary.

but still when i try to use "right click menu" still TB runs.
I can reproduce what you did, and now have that same right click issue. But I first want to say when you first installed Thunderbird:

~ #1. The first thing you should of done during TB install, was to uncheck this Default box here:
screenshot 1:
1. UnCheck This.jpg

~ #2. The second thing to do was make sure these settings in TB are set like this:
screenshot 2:
2. Thunderbird Settings.jpg


#3. After the fact, now that you didn't do any of that, you will need to go back and make sure you do (before and/or after)
The third thing to do now is then you go to:
> Default Apps > and set WinMail as Default like this:
screenshot 3:
3. Make WinMail Default App.jpg

#4. Also you will now have to re-merge all 3 reg files from Posts 1 & 2 again:
~ WinMailEdit.reg
~ 1709+Update.reg
~ v1709+.reg

(fwiw, 99.999999% of these 3 reg's will not change anything in the registry and will just overwrite what's already there; iow, you only need to replace a few lines of code that TB replaced, but I'm not taking the time to dissect that out for you, so it's just easier for you to merge all three which is a harmless overwrite anyway. Also note, after a reboot 'you may' have to go back and perform the spoilers screenshot above #2 & 3 again, but just make sure they are set right.

If by chance you already uninstalled TB, you will just need to do #4 & #3

...and that should fix it, well, it did for me in this very quick test for you while TB was still installed; but, I would have never installed TB in the first place for any reason - ymmv. ...Actually I would uninstall it ASAP :p ...but again of course, ymmv here too!
 
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  • OS
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    System Manufacturer/Model
    ..all towers built from scratch
    CPU
    i7's
    Other Info
    ..including W98SE/WXP
    No VM's ..all OS's are live
i did the procedure here on my windows 11 22h2, but it gives me an error about missing message database.

but it's clearly there.

could this be because i am not using an english windows version?
i could not copy acctres.dll.mui to en-US. so i copied it into de-DE
i did everything else as in posting #1 and #2 about 5 times, but no changes.

thanks anyway.

/edit: oh wow. figured it out. importing the .reg files didn't work by just double-clicking them, for whatever reason... windows said it was successful, when it wasn't.
i then used a 3rd party registry editor and imported them fine, and it works! hooray!
 
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  • OS
    Windows 11 22H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer
    CPU
    i7 11gen
    Memory
    16gb
ah well, there still is a problem.

i cannot add/edit accounts. if i go there in the menu, nothing happens. is this supposed to work?
 

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    Windows 11 22H2
    Computer type
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    Acer
    CPU
    i7 11gen
    Memory
    16gb
i cannot add/edit accounts. if i go there in the menu, nothing happens. is this supposed to work?

Yes of course it works, you are just rushing and not doing all the steps correctly yesterday with that, and then again today with this one.

Usually people run into problems with that Account button not opening, which is accessed via:
Tools> Accounts
Normally it's because the wrong version' ACCTRES.dll in the System32 folder can cause that Accounts button not to open, or, the acctres.dll.mui that goes in the System32\en-US folder to match it - surly if that mui is missing it Will cause just the the Accounts button to be inactive, and not open when you click it..
...Both of these files are given in post 2...

If you did not play with changing languages files and have the correct given version ACCTRES.dll given placed in the 'System32' folder, then just make sure you also actually have placed the given acctres.dll.mui in the 'System32\en-US' folder to match it.
..iow, when you are copy/pasting both these files make sure (as with all files here) pay attention to the prompts, make very sure they actually get placed, and if applicable, make sure it actually overwrites if there's already ones there!
 

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ah thanks.

but as said, i am not using an english version of windows 11. maybe i need another acctres.dll.mui than provided here.
i don't have write access to the System32\en-US folder, only TrustedInstaller has.
so i ended up copying acctres.dll.mui to de-DE. but it seems this does not work.

ACCTRES.dll is present in System32, and so is msoeacct.dll, both build 15063


/edit: ok, i managed to copy acctres.dll.mui into System32\en-US, using this tool: Releases · fafalone/RunAsTrustedInstaller
"accounts" now work, but it's in english. but that's ok for me.

/edit2: well, i took a look at this, and i did build a german acctres.dll.mui using the resources from windows 7, i don't have anything else.
works well, if anyone is interested, lemme know. but if someone drops an official german acctres.dll.mui here, i wouldn't mind.
 
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  • OS
    Windows 11 22H2
    Computer type
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    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer
    CPU
    i7 11gen
    Memory
    16gb
i don't have write access to the System32\en-US folder,
Yes, actually you have what is needed to replace the files, please read the directions better :cool: since of course I've already covered this on post #2 step #13, please read it, which is to simply use Take Ownership on any 'single file' for its 'release' to be able to replace it. You already had the Take Ownership installed from post one, so you would have simply to right click on the file you were replacing, click Take Ownership, and then overwrite it, done. (of course never take ownership of the System32 folder itself! ...only on the few single files that I give)
I talk about this issue in many posts since then: ..here is just one of those posts

i did build a german acctres.dll.mui using the resources from windows 7
...then you did a good job, and so good for you ;)
You only needed to pull those files from Windows Vista or I used Windows 7 preferred, in the language you want. It will be a match for this WinMail tutorial.
Years ago I would install Vista/Win7 in all languages and pull those files for people too, see: Language Files Localization Project ...but it took so much time for me to do it all, and besides it's been years since anyone has asked anyway, and so years ago I decided not to do it anymore and just support and supply English only from then on.

Anyway, good job. You will find whatever you come up with that we've already talked about and worked on it already, you just have to read all the instructions on Page 1 through 5 including their hidden spoiler information on each page, even this whole thread carefully. I know, I know, that takes a lot of time, but a Lot of time and effort was put into this entire project, and so it's good to catch-up on it all before posting <g>

Thank you for your support
 
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    ..all towers built from scratch
    CPU
    i7's
    Other Info
    ..including W98SE/WXP
    No VM's ..all OS's are live
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