I have never tried the procedure of overwriting Vista for an install of Windows 7, but maybe a reader can confirm that it would retain the information. I would urgently suggest, however, that you adopt the procedure I outlined. Difference now is that you have Windows live installed. Create a folder which will be your permanent Mail folder. Now, you may not know yet, buy you can bring back the old menu bar.go along the top bar and click the small square (the second icon), and click "show all menus". Now you have the file menu bar back. Now go through the path -TOOLS - OPTIONS - ADVANCED, and select maintenance. Now choose the Tool folder option and point it to the folder you have created. On restart, it will pick up all your available boxes and from then on use them. This has the double advantage that, in subsequnt reinstalls or recovers, none of the contents of your MailBox will be lost