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!