"A problem has occurred while trying to open this message."

Hi barry paton,

I will be happy to assist you in resolving your issue with regard to being unable to open email messages in Windows Live Mail.

It is possible that Mail.MsMessageStore file was corrupted. Please follow the steps below on how to repair the file:

1. Restart the computer (this is to ensure that Live Mail is fully shut down, and that none of it's components are in use when the computer starts)
2. Click Start, type CMD but do not press enter
3. You will see cmd.exe in the search results, right click on it and select Run as Administrator - type your admin password if asked, and if UAC pops up asking permission, allow it
4. You should now see the command prompt, with the following displayed:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]

Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>

5. Copy the following (press Ctrl+C):

esentutl.exe -d "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"

Note: the "" are necessary

6. Right click in the command prompt Window, and select Paste, so you now see the following:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]

Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>esentutl.exe -d "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"

7. Press enter. esentutl will now defragment the Live Mail database file
8. Once done, you can close the command prompt, and restart the PC again

If the issue persists, please notify us.

Thank you.

Hi Leonard,

I will be glad to assist you with your concern. It's possible that the issue was caused by a corrupted program file in Windows Live Mail client installed in your desktop. Kindly repair Windows Live Mail by following the steps below:

1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Under Programs, click Uninstall a Program.
3. Locate Windows Live Essential 2011 then click Uninstall/Change.
4. When a window appears, select Repair all Windows Live programs.
5. Restart your computer after the repair.

If the issue persists after repairing Windows Live Mail, I suggest that you **configure your account** in Windows Live Mail for us to isolate the issue.

Let us know for any results.

Thank you.

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Community forum. We're sorry for what happened. Let me help you with that. It is most likely that this is due to Live Mail related files that became corrupted. As additional troubleshooting step, please perform a clean install of the program. Clean Install is different from manually removing then reinstalling the program. This process has steps that would permanently remove all Live Mail related files on the system giving you a fresh new state to work on. Please follow the procedure below:

1. How to uninstall Windows Essentials via CMD line parameter
2. Reinstall using the online installer found on this link.

If the issue persists, please provide us your Live Mail build version to isolate the issue.

Thank you!

Hello Barry,

It is possible that you're clicking the left button on your mouse. When you right-click your mouse, it should show Open, Run as administrator etc.

Please let us know if you have other inquiries. We'll be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

Just an FYI, to summarize: I tried the repair in Programs in Control Panel a few times, I uninstalled and installed Windows Live Mail 2012 a few times, then I tried reentering email configuration data, and none of that helped; then I tried defragmenting the Mail.MsMessageStore file as suggested above, and following that, I could not open the program at all, with an error message "0 x800C0155, 2" indicating that the program was busy, eg with an antivirus scan (when antivirus was disabled), and to try later.

I gave up after this, and downloaded another email program, which is working fine.