Tag: Windows Live

Where’s Outlook Express or Windows Mail gone in Windows 7?

In Windows XP and Vista, there was a free entry-level desktop email client that could work with most Internet mail systems as part of the operating system. This client, either Outlook Express in XP or Windows Mail in Vista, often offered enough for people who used their home ISP’s POP3/SMTP or IMAP email facilities rather than use a Web-mail service like Hotmail, GMail or Yahoo Mail.

Windows Vista also had a free calendar program, known as Windows Calendar, as part of the distribution.

This situation was primarily reflected in the provision of Microsoft Office 2007 Home And Student Edition, which didn’t come with Microsoft Outlook. The user would typically run Windows Mail or Outlook Express for their POP3 email or use a Web-hosted mail service for their email and online calendar needs.

The Windows 7 situation

Now Microsoft have removed the email client from the Windows 7 distribution. most likely to comply with various competition directives and orders. It is also because there are a few desktop personal-information-management programs available for free as companion tools for some of the other Web browsers like Firefox and Opera. This would require the user to work with a Web-email service or, if they want to do so, use Windows Live Mail as their desktop email service.

The Windows Live Mail program can work with multiple POP3 or IMAP email services and even become a front-end for Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail service. It also has an integrated calendar function and the contacts are integrated with Windows Live services. This may mean those of you who use Windows Live Messenger / MSN Messenger can keep the contacts’ Messenger IDs as part of the contact database, which can allow the program to show “presence” information about the contacts.

There is some improvement in handling the sending of digital images. Here, if you register with Windows Live, you can send a “photo email” when you send pictures by email. This is an email message with thumbnails of the pictures, but the pictures have a hyperlink to the high-resolution image that is also held on the Windows Live server for a month. Any user who views the email in an HTML-enable desktop email client or Webmail service can click on the pictures to view or download the high-resolution image. 

You also benefit from the ability for Windows Live Mail to monitor your RSS feeds that you subscribe to through the Windows Feed Platform that is part of Internet Explorer 7 and 8. This will provide a “river of news” view sorted by the “press time” of each article; but can allow you to view the contents of a particular feed. It also can handle newsgroups based on the classic USENET method if you do still subscribe to them.

Where do I get Windows Live Mail?

You have to download the program for free from Microsoft’s Web site at http://get.live.com and if you want to benefit from Windows Live fully, you don’t have to maintain a Hotmail account. Instead, you can create a Windows Live account with your regular email address such as the email address your company or ISP gave you.

You also have the chance to pick up Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live (MSN) Messenger, Windows Live Writer which is a “blogger’s friend” (and the software I use for writing articles for this blog), Windows Live Movie Maker amongst other good software, It is also worth knowing that Windows XP and Vista users can run Windows Live Mail and these other programs on their computers if they are after better functionality.

Once you have this program set up on your Windows XP, Vista or 7 computer, you have the essential tools needed for personal email and information management.

Feature Article – Repurposing that ex-business laptop computer for home use

Originally published at my previous Windows Live Spaces blog in May 2007
First published on this blog in November 2008. Updated 31 July 2009
 
If you are repurposing an ex-business laptop computer for home use, you need to make sure that it is safe as far as the computer’s former life is concerned and able to perform well in the home. Here, you would need to “detach” the computer from its former business life by removing line-of-business applications and data; and business-specific configurations like network, VPN and terminal-emulation setups used in the business. In some situations like ex-kiosk computers where the computer was heavily locked down, you may have to research the Internet to find out how to reset the BIOS settings so you can boot from the optical drive for example.
 
1. Make sure that you have the original media and licence information for the operating system and any other software to be used in the home context.
2. Visit the computer manufacturer’s Website and obtain the complete driver set for the computer’s current configuration. Copy this driver set to a CD-R or USB memory key. You might find it better to work the computer directly with the operating system’s abilities like Windows Zero Configuration rather than use the software supplied by the system manufacturer.
3 Do any necessary repairs to the computer like replacing damaged keyboards. This could be a good time to track down replacement batteries, AC adaptors or AC cords for the computer. If the computer doesn’t have built-in wireless or isn’t able to have wireless networking retrofitted at a later date, track down a wireless-network PCMCIA card or ExpressCard to suit your home network.
4. Format the primary hard disk and install the operating system and other software from the original media. Activate XP / Vista / Windows 7 and Office as applicable and deploy the driver set from the CD-R or USB memory key that you prepared in Step 2.
5. Register the computer with network services that are part of the home network like the network printer. If the printer is hosted by a Windows box, you may be able to set it up using “Point and Print” where you load the printer drivers from the Windows box.
 
As far as software is concerned, you can use a basic “office” package like Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition as well as Screen Paver (the shareware photo screen-saver that I use) and the latest version of AVG AntiVirus Free Edition or Avast AntiVirus Home Edition for your additional software. Most functionality is catered for by the software that is part of the operating system.
 
If you are working with a Windows-based computer, it may be worth downloading Windws Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery from http://download.live.com . These programs provide the essentials for instant mesaging, desktop POP3 or IMAP mail, RSS-feed management and digital-image management.