Windows Live Mail icon
Windows Live Mail icon

Windows Live Mail

 61 likes

Windows Live Mail (formerly named Windows Live Mail Desktop) is a freeware email client from Microsoft. It is the successor to Outlook Express on Windows XP and Windows Mail on Windows Vista. The application is available for download via the Windows Essentials suite.

Windows Live Mail screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeProprietary

Application type

Country of Origin

  • US flagUnited States

Platforms

  • Windows
Discontinued

The program is no longer supported and downloadable, together with Windows Essentials icon Windows Essentials . Existing installations may continue to work, anyway some email service providers have moved to newer email protocols for improved security and reliability and they may no longer work with Windows Live Mail.

2.7 / 5 Avg rating (3)
61likes
4comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features
  1.  Spell Checking
  2.  IMAP Support
  3.  S/MIME Support
  4.  Built-in RSS reader

 Tags

  • windows-live

Windows Live Mail News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent activities

No activities found.

Windows Live Mail information

  • Developed by

    US flagMicrosoft
  • Licensing

    Proprietary and Free product.
  • Rating

    Average rating of 2.7
  • Alternatives

    40 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

Our users have written 4 comments and reviews about Windows Live Mail, and it has gotten 61 likes

Windows Live Mail was added to AlternativeTo by Stuck on Feb 28, 2009 and this page was last updated Sep 30, 2020. Windows Live Mail is sometimes referred to as Windows Mail.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
ndlinn
Feb 17, 2018
0

Very disappointed that Microsoft canceled this product. It was one of their best.

Top Negative Comment
nandayo
Mar 17, 2013
0

Doesn't support PGP

peterstaack
Apr 7, 2011
0

It's the necessary evil for a lot of my corporate clients. Try as I might, I can't convince 'em to stray from Windows Live Mail. It's not that it's a particularly bad product, but it's a fair bit more complicated for me to configure than other newer open source products out there. I've certainly used better mail clients, and I've used way WAY worse mail clients.

Dean
May 6, 2010
0

Windows Live Mail should be called "COMA Mail": it is alive, but comatose. Like most of the things Microsoft is putting out they pack in too much in to it, so it is slow and unresponsive. Also if you are over 35 and have vision problems the week pastel colors are a nightmare, and no way to set it to strong bold colors. If you thought Vista Mail was bad this one is about 100 times worse. I still miss good old Outlook Express, simple clean, handles many accounts and easy to use. Microsoft says this is "New Improved Outlook Express" but is not, sorry to say.

What is Windows Live Mail?

Windows Live Mail (formerly named Windows Live Mail Desktop) is a freeware email client from Microsoft. It is the successor to Outlook Express on Windows XP and Windows Mail on Windows Vista. The application is available for download via the Windows Essentials suite.

Supports multiple POP3 and IMAP4 mail accounts as well as calendar.

Support for Web-based email accounts including Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail Plus.

Synchronization with Windows Live Contacts.

Support for RSS feeds. Notable features include the ability to reply directly via email to the author of an item that appears in an RSS feed, and the ability to aggregate multiple feeds into a single folder. The RSS functionality requires Internet Explorer 7 or newer. Multi-line message lists. Emoticons can be used in emails and other functions. In-line spell checking. Separate inbox folders for different POP accounts. Support for sending picture files in emails through the Photo email feature, which uploads pictures to a web-based service and sends the URL and thumbnails in the mail. It can also perform basic photo correction and apply different border effects to pictures.