How to reinstate WinMail onto Windows 8/10/11

[endeavor]

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.

 

[yako2k3]

@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... ?

 

[endeavor]

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)

 

[yako2k3]

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...

 

[endeavor]

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:

 

[yako2k3]

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

 

[endeavor]

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:

Spoiler

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

Spoiler

#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:

Spoiler

#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 ...but again of course, ymmv here too!

 

[knalltuete]

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!

 

[knalltuete]

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?

 

[endeavor]

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!

 

[knalltuete]

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.

 

[endeavor]

i don't have write access to the System32\en-US folder,

Yes you already had what is needed to replace the files, and I've already covered this on post #2 step #13, which is to simply use Take Ownership on any 'single file' for its 'release' to be able to replace it. Since you already had the Take Ownership installed from post #1 step #3 for that particular step and reasons, but besides that for here when needed for the language folder, you would simply right click on the file you were replacing here, 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 for that. 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

 

[Kukattooo]

Microsoft announces to stop windows mail to work; see Outlook for Windows: The Future of Mail, Calendar, and People on Windows 11 - Microsoft Support ... Question: does this affect WinMail Vista? I can imagine there could be two possible ways of affection: windows mail will be blocked as all windows mail stuff will be disabled and an activity with that name ignored — even when the installed windows mail version is winmail vista; or winmail vista is not affected and installation will get easier as any windows mail stuff will no longer be touched and can work in the background without being affected. Does anyone know what is to expect?

 

[endeavor]

Question: does this affect WinMail Vista?

At this point I have no way of knowing.

I can imagine there could be two possible ways of affection: windows mail will be blocked as all windows mail stuff will be disabled and an activity with that name ignored

According to that article, for Win11 built-in Windows Mail Client, the article says:

"Users will continue to have the option to go back to Windows Mail and Calendar through a toggle in Settings > General > About Outlook, in the Outlook for Windows app."

..and so I assume means they won't pull the onboard Win11 mail app out completely, and just toggle it. I don't see any reason for them to also further remove even more of what's left of the old OE legacy code either, however each major update when installed as it does now will still 'remove' what this tutorial adds back of the legacy for Vista/Win7 WinMail to work, and so the tutorial will still always have to be re-run again to re-instate it.

Let's just wait and see, but no doubt Win10 and below will always be able to run this tutorial and have our Vista/Win7 WinMail working, as well Win11 up to whatever particular WinMail working last build would be, if, they ever pull more.
I probably won't chase WinMail past (or within) Win11 anymore if they change it again though, and luckily we've gone this long....