Why not move to other email clients such as noted by others?
I'm having almost identical issues as JM Consulting with Windows Live Mail today, yet it was working fine last night ...
I can open Windows Live Mail and see new un-read messages added to my inbox from my various email provider that I've linked in. When I click on an email to view it, nothing happens, no error message, nothing. If I then try closing Windows Live Mail, opening Sent Items, opening Contacts, all are frozen and do not respond at all. Restarting my computer doesn't make any difference.
I've tried Repairing and Uninstalling / Reinstalling as described above twice, but still the issue remains. (I also tried cleaning up Windows Live folder between uninstall and reinstall as described but couldn't find any of those files listed.)

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