View HTML source
If you want to view the HTML source of an email in Windows Live Mail, then the old Outlook Express trick still works: right-click the email, select Properties and clicking the Details tab will display the headers, while clicking Message Source displays the raw text in your default editor (probably Notepad).
This is a little inconvenient, though, and there's a much simpler alternative. Just select the message, then press Ctrl+F2 to view the source of the message body, or Ctrl+F3 to view the entire message source, headers included.
VIEW SOURCE: The ability to view the source code of your email is a useful security feature
Free up taskbar space
If you minimise Windows Live Mail under Windows 7 then annoyingly it remains on the taskbar, taking up valuable space.
One way to fix this is to right-click the Windows Live Mail shortcut, click the Compatibility tab, check the 'Run this program in compatibility mode for' box and select 'Windows Vista (Service Pack 2)'.
Now launch Live Mail, right-click its icon in the system tray, and select Hide Window When Minimised. And when you next minimise the program, it'll disappear from the taskbar. Right-click the Live Mail system tray icon for options to compose an email, create a calendar event, open the full program or close it down entirely.
This works just fine, however we're just a little nervous about telling the program we're running under Vista, when we're not: that could maybe lead to other problems later. A safer alternative might be to run a third-party tool to minimise the program on our behalf, and the Windows Mail Minimizer (windowsmailminimizer.hoha.ru) is an ideal candidate: compact, free and easy to use.
FREE SPACE: Minimising Windows Live Mail to the system tray frees up valuable taskbar real estate
Create an email in a click
Having freed up a little taskbar space with the previous tip, you might want to use that by creating an icon that will launch the Live Mail 'new email' window, automatically filling in the recipient's address, the Subject line and perhaps even a line of body text. (But if you'd rather keep taskbar clutter to a minimum then you can also create a shortcut as an alternative.)
To begin, right-click an empty part of the desktop, select New > Text Document, and rename the file to liveshortcut.exe. Drag and drop it onto the taskbar.
Now right-click the new pinned icon, right-click liveshortcut, click Properties, then enter something like this into the target box:
'C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Mail\wlmail' /mailurl:mailto:name@address.com?subject=Something&body=Hi%20there
Replace this path with the one to wlmail.exe on your system, if it's different, and change the recipient's address, subject and body text to suit your needs, or omit the subject and body parameters if they're not required. (If you prefer the shortcut approach, create a new shortcut and enter the above line as the shortcut's target location.)
Now enter 'C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Mail' in the Start In box, click OK, and you're done. Simply clicking this icon will fire up the New Email window for you, perfect if you're regularly sending messages to the same person.
Recovering emails
Windows Live Mail does a better job of avoiding corrupt emails than Outlook Express, but there may still be times when you find you can't view messages that you're sure were there earlier.
When this happens to us we use a copy of the free Mail Viewer (www.mitec.cz/mailview.html) to browse our message database. It runs on every version of Windows from 95 upwards, and can access Live Mail, Outlook Express 4, 5 and 6 email stores, Windows Mail, Live Mail and even Mozilla Thunderbird message databases. These can be searched in detail, there are HTML previews of messages, you can access and save attachments: if your emails aren't too damaged then the program should allow you to recover at least some of them.
Change the New Mail sound
Windows Live Mail allows you to turn off the 'new mail' notification sound, if you like, but it doesn't allow you to replace the default sound with one of your own. For that, you must go to the Control Panel Sounds applet, click the Sounds tab, then scroll to and click on New Mail Notification. Choose an alternative from the Sounds list (click Test to hear it), or click Browse to choose a suitable audio file of your own, in the WAV format, then click OK to make the change official.
Newsgroups in Windows Live Mail
Aside from emails, Windows Live Mail can also help you access newsgroups, simple online discussion groups that have been around almost since the beginning of the internet. They're not so popular now - web message boards are easier to use, and search - but plenty of people still use them, and if you can't find an answer to a problem on the web then they may be worth a try.
To begin, click Newsgroups, and if you've no other program set up to use them, click Yes to make Live Mail your default news client.
Click Add Newsgroup Account, enter your name as you'd like it to appear in any message you post, and click Next.
You're asked to type your email address at this point, but it'll only attract spam, so we'd recommend you enter something obviously false: steve@myisp.com, say. Click Next.
Enter news.aioe.org as your server (it's free), leave the 'My News Server Requires Me to Log On' box blank, click Next > Finish, and click Yes to view the available newsgroups.
Scroll down the list and find something that looks interesting: alt.windows7.general if you want to read or ask about Windows 7 issues, for instance. Double-click this, click OK and the newsgroup will appear under the news server name. Click the newsgroup name and you'll find a list of posts on the topic; you can browse what's on offer, or post something new yourself by clicking New > News Message. Though don't get carried away: news.aioe.org strictly limits you to 25 posts a day. See www.aioe.org for more on this and other restrictions.
NEWSGROUPS: Windows Live Mail makes it easy to read and post to newsgroups
Repairing Live Mail
If you're experiencing significant problems with Live Mail that you can't solve in any other way, then a repair installation might help.
Choose the 'Uninstall a Program' applet in Control Panel, scroll down and click on the entry for Windows Live Essentials. Choose 'Repair', click Continue, and wait while all Windows Live programs are repaired and updated.
The Windows Live Essentials tool can also be used to remove Windows Live Mail, if you decide you don't need it any more, or want to try a clean reinstall. Just choose the Uninstall option, click Continue, check the Mail box, click Continue again and Live Mail will be uninstalled.
FIXED: A repair installation can solve many odd Live Mail problems
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