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Rant

Windoes live mail

Sep 6, 2013 11:39PM PDT

I have a couple of problems this week.

First WLM worked fine last Tuesday. Wed AM it did not. It did not recognize my logon and password, what had NOT changed, as I am the only user.
Comcast would not trouble shoot, and referred me to WLM help. They would not provide support over the phone. The referred me to MS, who put me on hold and never came back. Repeated calls to Comcast got me no where.
After powering down and trying some hours later, WLM gave me a different error. Basically it said it could not start because of a problem with the WLM calendar. I have never used that function! My guess is that WLM is trashed, so that bring me to my questions:

1. If I uninstall WLM, where do I go the get a new copy to download? Be specific please.

2. Will I lose all of my email addresses and stored emails if I reinstall or are these files stored outside of WLM? What are the file names of my email addresses and saved emails so I can back them up, before I reinstall?

THANK YOU for reading.

Discussion is locked

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Keep in mind
Sep 7, 2013 5:46AM PDT

That I have yet to cure most WLM issues. But I have helped many move away from the disaster by installing Thunderbird and letting Tbird import all the old information.
Bob

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OK, here're the locations in Windows 7
Sep 7, 2013 6:09AM PDT

You didn't say what version of Windows you're running, so I'm going to give you the info for Windows 7 which is what I'm using currently. First the contacts are in
C:\Users\yourid\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Contacts\Default\14.5\Dbstore. There are several files there, but the contacts.edb file is the one with most of the info.
The emails are in
<div> C:\Users\yourid\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\ISPname. In my case the ISPname field is "Comcast(wp 372". Comcast is my ISP but I have no idea how they came up with the rest of that - it's not my email address, but you should see something recognizable there hopefully.
</div> Bob's suggestion to use Thunderbird to save all that is a good one, although in the 4 years I've been using WLM I've been lucky enough not to have to resort to that. I know he's very down on WLM (and for good reason), but it's been stable for me the last 16 months FWIW. We use it on 28 computers where I teach, and rarely have problems, again FWIW. Thunderbird is a good alternative, and a lot of folks who have MS Office like Outlook too.
`
Good luck.

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Sorry if I seem that down on it.
Sep 7, 2013 6:16AM PDT

My only excuse is that folk only bring me their broken stuff. After a while with too many WLM issues you tend to say "enough" and find an exit.

Hope folk understand that.
Bob

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I did say you have good reason :-)
Sep 7, 2013 6:44AM PDT

Bob, I hope you didn't think I was criticizing you - I did say you have good reason for your perspective. Even in the very rare occasions where I might have a different perspective, I'm very reluctant to be critical of you because I think you're doing a fantastic job. Whatever they're paying you, they're getting a great bargain! Tell 'em I said to give you a raise and keep up the great work. Happy

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More on this
Sep 7, 2013 12:31PM PDT

I spoke with Dell tech support today and they believe my probles are related to Comcast problems with their email system. Dell was able to correct the files that WLM screwed up, and I can now access my email thru the comcast web site.
I also called Verizon and they are coming out on Monday to instal their product. Year of battling Comcast awful customer and technical support are coming to an end.