Why I quit using Windows Live Mail desktop

[Kennethm]

THought you might want to know....because there are probably 20 million
people who feel like I do.....my reasons for dropping Windows live Desktop
recently and going back to the ancient Outlook Express.

1) I can't read the headers once they're opened and greyed out. Maybe some
people like the slick shadow of GMAIL, but I don't see why Live Desktop wants
to imitate another product. (And GMAIL does it smarter: they don't grey out
the subject fields...so you can still see what your list of email is).

If your screen is a laptop not too big...if your eyes are over 45 or 50
years old...and if you read and have many detailed items going on (instead of
brief chats with your peers)....then reading the subject and the lists of
your inbox and sent items and so forth matters...and it has become impossible.

(If there is a way to stop the grey...I haven't found it in 3 hours of
searching...all I know is that the build of 6 m or so onths ago reads
wonderfully....today's build [for XP) does not).

2) Besides greying out the type face has gotten kind of designy and hip
(folder names, etc.)...and some of us like type like we have been reading all
our lives instead of cool.

3. Related problem: Live doesn't respect file structures. It marries
perfectly with the HTTP server of Hotmail...but god forbid you have created
15 files for storing subjects and history either on another computer in Live,
or in OE....try importing that structure and those files into Live.....it
imports either a weird mash...or rolls is all into a hard to seprate giant
Import/Recover file...or whatever.

The lack of serious migration (between computers, and from other programs),
which respects folders, subfolders, multiple accounts, and preserves email
sent and received dates as well as file structure....means the program isn't
serious yet.

So....much as I like it's speed, it's consolidated quickviews (although why
all the Quickviews have the same list of columns in the same order is beyond
me...and the same settings for column width, no less....?).....and much as I
like it's seamless working with HTTP Hotmail (as in the Junk folders for
exmaple)....I have to give it up.

If I can't read my mail, and I can't count on it to move and grow with me
and my mail store....I can't depend on it or take it seriously.

So g'bye to windows live mail for my desktop.

If there was a way to restore the current "skin" to the import of 6 months
ago, I wouldn't have wasted a day resurrecting OE.....

Thanks for listening.

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[J @discussions.microsoft.com Rick J]

Just to add my agreement. What genius thought that greying out the message
lines to almost invisibility was a good idea? I was so pleased to find a
working alternative to Outlook Express, and was confident that when I
upgraded from the 2008 version of WLM to August 2009 version that there would
be an improvement, - NOT a stupid downgrade. Please Microsoft issue a
patch or a revision that allows the message headers of downloaded messages TO
BE READ by people who don't have teenage eyes.

"If it ain't broke - don't fix it"