Windows 7 has one major problem, though most folk don’t mind much.
In an effort to head off further lawsuits, MS decided to abandon it’s longstanding Windows product, Windows Mail (otherwise known as Outlook Express) in favor of an Internet application Live Mail. Now, the only problem with this is that online mail has been demonstrated to be Highly insecure.
Instead of trolling the internet for fleeting mail messages, most folks that want to grab your mail instead go directly to the source. In most cases, this used to mean getting into your system. But, with all these Internet mail offerings, they know where to go! Everyone’s mail is just sitting in a single location, easily accessible by anyone from anywhere in the world!
Another, more minor problem, is that none of the alternative mail applications make upgrading easy. Sure, they all claim to import your settings and mail messages, but that only works if they are both currently installed on your current system. Most aren’t, since those moving systems to Windows 7 are doing so with clean system install, meaning there is no existing mail system, thus the applications won’t grab the old messages and settings!
Anyway, the solution to these problems is, other than installing MS Office, is to replace the existing, but unusable Windows 7 mail program, with the one from Vista.
Install:
o Simply go to C:\Program Files
o Rename the “Windows Mail” folder to "Windows Mail (Old)"
o Copy the Vista “Windows Mail” folder to C:\Program Files, replacing the old one
o Open the folder, double click “WinMail.exe”, and accept it as your new “Default Mail Handler”.
That should be it. Oh, you may have to “Take Ownership” via a <right click> on the file directly. If so, you should download Yamisoft’s “Windows 7 Manager”. That should enable the “Take Ownership” command for you, however I don’t think you’ll need it, although it’s a VERY valuable Windows 7 feature.
How to Take ownership of a folder: