Vista - Windows Live Mail stops working whenever Contacts is used

I have used Live Mail under Vista Business very happily for a long time.
I dont use Live Messenger.
I installed Windows Live Essentials recently, thinking it was an upgrade.
Big mistake.
My Mail proceeeded to download every message left on my ISP account, found
some obscure Contacts, but worked. I really didnt like its features, so I
went back to a month old recovery.
Recovery done, Live Mail looks like it should.
BUT
every attempt to use Contacts in anyway whatsovever results in "Windows Live
Mail has stopped working".
Any ideas please ?

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:39:02 -0700, davef99 wrote:
Your other big mistake is using the web to access these groups. You often
wind up repeating the same post multiple times because the MS HTTP-to-NNTP
skidgy fails:

| Message-ID: <7053C764-09E5-428D-A8CE-F598CB882AAF@xxxxxx>
| Message-ID: <8AE94DDC-5E76-4E0E-9C42-F372D5CF222C@xxxxxx>
| Message-ID: <059A69E8-9530-48EB-B965-4F72705AB06E@xxxxxx>

Those are the MID$s of three exactly identical articles posted using:

| X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000

Which is the flaky MS HTTP-to-NNTP skidgy. You think you are posting with
your browser, but the NNTP server doesn't understand HTTP. Next time, use
WLM to post your article:

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...e.mail.desktop

Not sure about how to fix your problem. Windows Live wants to move everybody
to "cloud computing". They have really bollixed up the installation of their
clients, for those of us not willing to use the Internet as our computer.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum