Windows Live Mail

Installing Windows Live Mail on Windows 11

After installing Windows Live Mail (WLM) on Windows 11, WLM may need the following tweak:

1. Close Windows Live Mail.

2. Create a restore point, using System Restore.

3. Open the Registry editor: press the Windows key; type REGEDIT in the search box; then double-click on the term REGEDIT.EXE in the search results. If you are unsure about finding the correct area to edit, read this article:

https://www.lifewire.com/hkey-local-machine-2625902

4. In the Registry Editor, navigate to this location in the registry:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

5. Create the following three DWORD entries in that location:

Value name: RecreateFolderIndex

Value type: REG_DWORD

Value data: 1

Value name: RecreateStreamIndex

Value type: REG_DWORD

Value data: 1

Value name: RecreateUIDLIndex

Value type: REG_DWORD

Value data: 1

Make CERTAIN that you create DWORD entries. There are several other types: this solution FAILS if you create the wrong type. This is the procedure:

(a) To create a DWORD entry, right-click on that location (it's in fact a registry key), then select 'New', then select the option labelled 'DWORD'. Then type in (or copy-and-paste) the text which is the name of the new entry.

(b) Then modify the new entry's value: right-click on the new entry, then click on "Modify", then type in 1 as the new "value data", then click on "OK".

Do that three times, to create those three new entries. If the three entries already exist, you only need to do step (b). The entries will (presumably) each have a value of 0. You must modify all three, so that they all have a value of 1.

6. Close the Registry Editor, then restart the computer. This step is ESSENTIAL. Windows will only re-load the registry when Windows itself starts.

7. Start Windows Live Mail. Then the message display should be back to normal, and those 3 values in the registry should have reset themselves to 0 (and can be left like that).

Step 6 is essential, and was kindly contributed by user DKO777. He reported the following on another thread: "My Registry did NOT have any of the lines mentioned, so I had to create all three and set them to 1. Following a PC reboot these reverted to 0 and WLM worked normally".

Do NOT log-on to a Windows administrator account! This fix fails if you do. You MUST make the registry changes from within your normal user account, i.e. you must make the fix in the account in which Windows Live Mail is installed.

Do you really need a registry backup? If you can make one, do so: it never hurts to be cautious. But this is such a small change that in most cases you won't need it, provided you are careful not to delete anything (this solution only asks you to add 3 entries, not to delete any). In most cases, all you will need to do is modify 3 existing entries, by changing the value of each from 0 to 1. It certainly won't harm Windows to make so minor an alteration.

If the foregoing does not fix the problem, you have made a mistake:

1. You have created the wrong type of entry in step 5 (you should have created DWORD entries); or

2. You have failed to restart the computer in step 6 (restarting just Windows Live Mail is not enough).