Windows 10 MS Live Mail discontinued, what does it really means?

[bochane]

MS sent us the following email

Actie vereist voor gebruikers van Windows Live Mail 2012
(Action required for users of Windows Live Mail 2012)

As I understood it, Windows Live Mail in combination with a MS mail account (Hotmail / Livemail / Outlook) synchronizes your email account, calendar and contacts using MAPI protocol between your computers.

What exactly are they discontinuing?
- is it the Live Mail Client (this means you can continue with Office Outlook if you install the MS Outlook Connector)
- is it the MAPI protocol (this means that you may be able to synchronize your email account using IMAP but that you won’t be able to share your Calendar and Contacts)

Yes you can use the new W10 MAIL app, but there is a disadvantage. I have added some more email accounts to my live account on the server and you won't see them using the W10 MAIL app.

What are they doing, from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail to......
I hate this

What are your thoughts?

 

[kemical]

Hi Bochane,
I think it's the actual Live mail client?:

This article explains alternatives available for accessing your @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com or @msn.com account once the Windows Live Mail 2012 email application stops connecting to these email accounts.

Windows Live Mail 2012 will not connect to Outlook.com - Outlook

 

[bochane]

Hi Kemical,

That was also my first thought. But reading through this article, I still am not sure; they talk about a new Outlook 2016....
But will I be able to use an earlier version of the MS Office Outlook and get my Calendar and Contacts synchronized?
Will the Outlook Connector still work or are they simply shutting down the MAPI protocol?

Or is it a new trick of MS to push us to Office 365?

Thanks any way and have a nice day,
Henk

 

[kemical]

Or is it a new trick of MS to push us to Office 365?

I think we have a winner... LOL!

You have a great day too Henk..

 

[Joe S]

I'm confused too does this mean that Hotmail will be discontinued and when is the date? I've got 2 hotmail accounts and will need to change some contact info in various places.
Joe

 

[kemical]

It is a tad confusing, I did some checking and it seems that it's either already happened or it's happening in stages. Apparently there was an update going around which had to be installed if you wanted to keep using your old accounts, see here:
Windows Live Mail 2012 requires an update to keep using it

Although many have complained that it borked the client too.

This is the most recent blog:
Windows Live Mail 2012 will not connect to Outlook.com - Outlook

So do you still need to install the update or what? I'll keep searching....

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Henk,
I think you are right; my understanding is the MS is abandoning the Live Mail Client. The MAPI protocol is still intact, as you can you still use W10 Mail (Native) for major webmails, but they have some glitches in the W10 Native Mail client including one I uncovered during the first post-RMT release of W10 and that is in order to use many ISP webmails (Cox, Verizon, AT&T, Charter, etc.), you have to turn off the firewall or in some cases completely disable 3rd party AVs such as Avast & Norton in order to get your E-mail synced. Once that's done, they will all work. I had 5 E-mail accounts running through Verizon and got them to all work and sync; but it wasn't easy; took me 2 weeks.

I agree with kemical and you that they are trying to get rid of the cut down old W98 Outlook Express type E-mail client and they are forcing people to move to either Outlook2016 (the full Outlook E-mail Client) or nothing at all; they are simply doing away with it. The W10 Native Mail has lost so many features, it's useless to me (no Priority settings, no Delivery/Read Receipts, etc.) it's not worth using. I did pony up the money and switched over to Outlook2016 as part of the Office365, and all works much better for me; it costs me $119 per year for the Office365 subscription and I can use the Outlook2016 Client on 5 PCs; so that's like $2 per PC to run a decent E-mail Client. You can still buy the standalone version of Office2016 and get the Outlook2016 client; but it's only for 1 PC. So, I chose to go with the full Office365 paid subscription and everything works much better now. And yes, it's just another way for MS to get more of our money.

Of course you could use an entirely different mail Client such as open-source Thunderbird or PO Box or one of those, but they are not suitable for Business purposes IMHO. I think MS's thinking is that if they remove enough features from the native Mail Client people will spend the money to get a decent Mail client (Office365) or go open-source for free, and struggle through the compatibility issues those Mail clients present.

Thought I'd chime in since I was an E-mail Administrator for many companies during my career, and I'm more familiar with it than most.

BBJ

 

[davehc]

As I read it, the only thing which will be different is that it will not collect from your on line outlook account. You will still be able, if that is the direction in which your wish to go, to collect from there direct.

"I'm confused too does this mean that Hotmail will be discontinued" NO

The patch, which Kemical refers to, was, I believe, sent out in error and subsequently withdrawn. But, with or without the patch, you will still not be able to collect outlook/Hotmail email, with WLM.
But I have crossed over to a combination of Ms outlook and the built in Mail program. They synchronised with little effort.

I am not sure, but see no reason why an earlier Outlook would not work.

 

[bochane]

That would be a relief; I almost believed that being a legal owner of Office 2007, 2010 both with Outlook, I still was forced to get Office 365.

But I am not quite sure what you mean with
"the only thing which will be different is that it will not collect from your on line outlook account. You will still be able, if that is the direction in which you wish to go, to collect from there direct".
Sorry, my fault, English is not my native language.
Will I be able with my Outlook to access and synchronize my Mail, Calendar and Contacts from my live account?

There still is a Windows Live 2013 Mail client but I suspect it to go the same way as the 2011 and 2012 versions.

Thanks again and greetings from Leiden, The Netherlands,
Henk

 

[holdum333]

Hi Henk! I'm not a user of office or outlook. I switched to gmail when W7 came out and never looked back.
Oh by the way I see nothing wrong with your English. I'm not sure if @kemical,s new thread covers any of your question, but give it a look if you haven't already.
Greeting from Enid Oklahoma!
Windows Live Mail 2012 will not connect to Outlook.com

 

[davehc]

Hi Henk. If you click the link in Kemical's email (not the one above this post) Go to the bottom of the page and click the small writing, whrtr it says English. You can change this to your native language from the drop down menu.
But, what I mean, simple, is:
WLM will not get mail from Outlook/Hotmail. But you will still be able to go to
Link Removed.com/
and collect the mail. You could make a shortcut on your desktop, for ease of use.

 

[bochane]

Let's summarize all answers:

- It only affects the Live Email Client 2012 - see Kemical #2 link 2/3 down "Who needs to take action"

- There is a fair change that previous versions of the Office Outlook will continue to work with a MS mail account like Hotmail / Live / Outlook - I will go in that direction

- The W10 Mail app has insufficient functionality for use in a professional office environment

- And a little off topic, Gmail offers same or better functionality

Thanks to everyone who responded,
Henk

 

[RichM]

I agree the Windows 10 Mail like earlier versions is too spartan and really no different than webmail, and opinion I have always had also about Thunderbird. As stated above though all newer versions of Outlook (2007 on up) will still have all functionality and work fine. Live Mail had enough features to be used in an office environment whereas these others simply do not.
Another one not mentioned here which has a free version for 2 email addresses and paid for more though is "EM Mail" that is a nice looking program that does quite well in an office environment.

 

[bochane]

A nice looking program. Did not know it. Certainly a serious candidate.

Thanks Rich,
Henk

 

[RichM]

Welcome.

 

[bochane]

Part of the Windows Live Essentials is the 'Outlook connector'. MS Outlook (as part of MS Office) needed this pack to be able to synchronize your Hotmail / Live / Outlook mail account.
This also seems to be discontinued, it stopped working.
On Outlook 2010 and newer you now can use a MS Exchange account (it will configure automatically; remove the account that was using the Outlook connector before you configure your Exchange account)
On Outlook 2007 and older versions you are out of luck.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

This is basically correct! You should also know that folks who are remiss to upgrade anything on their 10 year old computers (as many of my Customers do not want to do), let alone have to change their E-mail address they've had for 20 years! Ugghhh! So, folks with Hotmail and MSN.com addresses are on M$ crap-list and now have to pay an annual fee ($49.95 or so) to keep their E-mail address from the Jurassic era when dinosaurs such as computers with Win3.1 walked the earth! Even if you pay M$ the cash to keep your ancient Hotmail (that's been discontinued for about 6 years now!) or your MSN.com E-mail, they don't work very well with some of the above-mentioned E-mail clients such as older versions of Outlook (older than Outlook2007) or any versions of WLM since M$ has removed the outlook-connector pack from working on their back-end servers. I just went through repairing E-mail for a Customer who had her 20-year old MSN.com address (she refused to update since it was for her business), and did get it working on Outlook 2007 after much confusion and of course cleaning out 9 years worth of E-mail she never touched, filed, or deleted any of her messages; resulting in an inbox with over 22,000 messages in it. Took me a week to fix. Fortunately for her, she wasn't using WLM, or Outlook2003 or older!

From what I can see, M$ is indeed taking steps to consolidate all these paleolithic E-mail users to newer versions of their Mail, whether it's W10 Native Mail or Outlook365 (via Office365 subscription). So for users who are unwilling to move into the modern era E-mail (2009 or newer), using alternative E-mail clients such as EM-Mail, PO Box, Thunderbird, whatever is a Band-Aid to the M$ dreadnaught of E-mail consolidation and obsolescing of older platform support. This has been going on with them forever, going back to Outlook Express97. These band-aids will work for some home users, and some corporate users, but certainly, not for all of them. Of course, if Microsoft E-mail was perfect, none of these after-market E-mail apps would even exist in the first place!

Cheers!
BBJ

 

[kemical]

Some facts about the end of support for Windows Essentials 2012:

Microsoft Essentials 2012 Release notes

This page provides late-breaking or other information about Windows Essentials 2012.

End of support date January 10, 2017.


Will Windows Essentials 2012 still be available for download?
Windows Essentials 2012 suite will be available for download until it reaches its end of support date on January 10, 2017.

What happens to my already installed Windows Essentials 2012 applications?
Already installed applications will continue to work as they do today. There is an increased security risk associated with use of unsupported products past their end of support date.

Can I still use Windows Live Mail?
Yes. Though, some email service providers have moved to newer email protocols for improved security and reliability not supported by Windows Live Mail. These email service providers may no longer work.

Are there any recommended alternatives?

• Mail is available as a free built-in application for Windows 8.1 and above.
• Photos is available as a free built-in application for Windows 8.1 and above.
• Movie Maker will soon be available from Windows Store for Windows 10 users.
• Live Writer is available as an open-source solution.
• One Drive is an inbox feature for Windows 8.1 and above.
• Family Safety is an inbox feature for Windows 8.1 and above.

Reference as well as more information can be found here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13785#Windows-Essentials-2012

 

[bochane]

Thanks BBJ and thanks Kemical!

What happens to my already installed Windows Essentials 2012 applications?
Already installed applications will continue to work as they do today. There is an increased security risk associated with use of unsupported products past their end of support date.

The 'Outlook connector' may be a plug-in for the Outlook email client of MS Office and not an application, anyway it has stopped working.

Can I still use Windows Live Mail?
Yes. Though, some email service providers have moved to newer email protocols for improved security and reliability not supported by Windows Live Mail. These email service providers may no longer work.

I think they are referring to the Live Mail email client.

I wonder if other non-MS email clients stil work. No problem with mail on my Samsung smartphone. Is MS creating its own problems? Or are they enhancing the safety so these old clients are unsafe and obsolete?

 

[kemical]

Or are they enhancing the safety so these old clients are unsafe and obsolete?

I guess the time to worry is after Jan 10th 2017.