Vista - Problem Loading Windows Live Mail

The subject says it all.

I have Vista 64-bit and have happily used WLM since I got the PC.
However, I have just tried to load it and all I get is the WLM spash
screen...nothing else. It just sits there, looking at me and refuses
to do anything else.

I've not done anything since I used it last night. I downloaded some
e-mails, looked at some NG's then closed it and left it. Now when I
try to access it...nothing.

Anyone any ideas?

TIA

Duncs

Access Task Manager and end task on all occurrences of wlmail.exe, then try opening/loading WLM


--
...winston
ms-mvp mail

"Duncs" <True.Kilted.Scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:ce564c80-bf88-4289-8204-ce31a0cbfc8a@xxxxxx

"Duncs" <True.Kilted.Scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:ce564c80-bf88-4289-8204-ce31a0cbfc8a@xxxxxx
What all is it supposed to do normally then?
Since you can't open it at all you probably can't get into its
Tools, Options, dialog to try to change that and would have to
resort to registry hackery as an alternative. ; }
However, what I would try is using IE (for example) to set
Work Offline before trying to start WLMail. (E.g. press Alt-F,W)
That would presumably cause WLMail to bypass doing
whatever it is it normally would be trying to do for you.

BTW if you already had troubleshooting logging enabled
you should be checking the log to see what it is doing
each time.

Another option which would depend on you having already
set your compaction interval to 1 (or finding the registry hack
which would do that for you) would be to start WLMail
with this command:

wlmail.exe /calendarurl:http://calendar.live.com/

(e.g. press Win-R and paste that into the Run... dialog)

That's the way that I have found is most reliable for
letting me do a compaction on demand.


Otherwise I would try using ProcMon to see exactly what
WLMail is doing in terms of file and registry accesses.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

On 1 May, 04:19, "Robert Aldwinckle" <rob...@xxxxxx> wrote:OK guys, many thanks for your replies.

Winston that was the first thing I tried and closed the only instance
of it down. I've also rebooted the PC and when I then try to load it,
it still gives me the same problem.

Robert, many thanks for your technical, detailed response. I don't
understand your first two sentences...change what? Registry hack to
do what? Normally I would expect it to load, as it has done
previously, and display either my e-mail or NG's.

I haven't tried using it offline, so I'll give that a try when I get
home from work. "troubleshooting logging enabled"...I've no idea what
this is, how I switch it on or how I can check if I have it on. Can
you advise? The same is true for the "compaction interval"...I've no
idea what this is or how to set it. Is it done within WLMail itself,
or can you advise on the registry hack?

I did try and load it last night and left it for a while. When I
checked it later, it had a message about not being able to find its
message store. I've not deleted it, as I don't know where it is. It
gave me the option to try and find the file(s) or to cancel and re-
create them. I selected the option to locate them, but couldn't find
them. I then loaded it again, and after a similar period, it gave me
the same message. I selected the option to re-create them but the all
that happened was the splash screen still being displayed on the
screen...even after leaving it on all night.

Can you suggest anything, or advise on my questions?

Many TIA

Duncs

Hi, Duncs.
To find YOUR WLM message store, just click Tools | Options | Advanced |
Maintenance | Store Folder. This will show you the full pathname to the
Message Store that your WLM is now using. If you use Windows Explorer to
browse to that location, you should see many files and folders there. The
key file (probably the biggest one by far) is Mail.MSMessageStore.

If a search turns up a file by that name at some other location on your hard
drive, you MAY be able to switch to using that Store Folder. Post back if
you need instructions to do that. Perhaps a disk swap or reorganization of
your system has left WLM looking in a location that no longer exists, or no
longer holds your store folder.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"Duncs" <True.Kilted.Scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:edcdd925-8d86-44c5-9cb6-a16d3d02f99d@xxxxxx

On 1 May, 15:14, "R. C. White" <r...@xxxxxx> wrote:
RC,

The problem I have though is, I can't even load WLM. So, I can't
check the location of the files.

Is it stored anywhere else...the registry perhaps? If I search for it
and find it, can I move it elsewhere and modify its location, via the
registry or something else?

TIA

Duncs

Hi, Duncs.

Look in the Registry at:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

The Store Root key should hold the full pathname to your Message Store.

But, given the other symptoms you have mentioned, this probably is not your
real problem. You might be best to Export the entire WLM tree from the
Registry to a safe backup location, then remove WLM and reinstall it. IF it
runs then, Import the saved Registry entry and see if it still works; if so,
problem solved. If it works with the default Registry but not with your
imported one, then you have a pretty good idea of where to focus your
debugging efforts. If it doesn't work even with the default Registry, then
aim your research in a different direction; it may be as simple as a bad
download from http://download.live.com/wlmail .

You may have seen the several messages here from users who can't load WLM
because the previous session did not Exit cleanly, leaving the wlmail.exe
process running. The fix seems to be to close WLM, then start Task Manager
(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and look in Processes for any instance of wlmail.exe that are
still running, even though you know WLM is not running. Right-click on that
process and End process; say Yes, you are sure. Then see if WLMail will
start.

Post back with any results.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100


"Duncs" <True.Kilted.Scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ac908c20-58d4-4b99-9a38-892a609fea3c@xxxxxx

"Duncs" <True.Kilted.Scot@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:edcdd925-8d86-44c5-9cb6-a16d3d02f99d@xxxxxx
And? What happened?


I don't have one. I would have to use ProcMon (or RegMon)
to try to devise one. There is certainly nothing in the UI to
support such a procedure.


That might be a good clue for someone more familiar with
WLMail internals. However, I thought that the Message Store
could be regenerated by deleting it. Supposedly that is what
"compaction" is all about now in WLMail. E.g. only the index
not your documents are at risk now if you don't compact
occasionally.


Did you try my other suggestion about starting WLMail.exe
with its calendarURL: switch? Even if you don't have your
compaction interval set to 1 you could probably repeat that
command as often as necessary to decrement it (or increment it
as the case may be) to its limit and then get a compaction done.

Your newest symptoms certainly seem to be pointing to a problem
with your index...

(Synchronicity.) Today I was using OE without WLMail
running and had to open an .eml attachment.
Because I installed WLMail last and it took over that
file type association a WLMail message window opened.
When I closed it because my compaction interval is one
I got a compaction request. I accepted it (replied Yes.)
And it worked! So that is now another way apparently
that we can change that counter.

So, is WLMail your default program for reading Mail and
News. E.g. if you try to open a .eml or a .nws file do you
see a WLMail message window? Then that would be another
way for you to try to get closer to a compaction request.
It would certainly be easier to open a bunch of .eml or .nws
messages than to do that /calendarURL thing I suggested
before. BTW related to this some people who are using
Windows Search find that it causes unexpected compaction
requests in both WLMail and OE, probably for the same reason.
So running WS 4.0 might be another alternative for getting
that counter changed. <eg>


Good luck

Robert
---

"Robert Aldwinckle" <robald@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uCc94SryJHA.2324@xxxxxxI thought you had to have Search running to 'find' in a message?
Are you suggesting that is not a good idea or not the case?

--
Wisdom and experience come with age, they say, but I wish I could
remember the darn question

"GbH" <Geoff_Hannington@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:uIaOEowyJHA.1432@xxxxxx

No. Just pointing out that there may be some unexpected
consequences of using it, especially when the news client
(or E-mail client) is not running.

BTW the only Find command that is affected by not having
WS running is the new Ctrl-e Find bar; the Ctrl-Shift-F
Find Message window is always available (and often more
useful IMO.)


Robert
---