Windows Live Mail can not copy hyperlinks from one e-mail to another.

Chris: please read further here for the 'fix' suggested is based on a false premise-- that IE 11 causes the problem. All this is what I have encountered since 2010 and when I had IE 8.

Not sure about the problem going back to IE8.  While I was on Windows 8.0, copy and paste of hyperlinks worked fine.  Following auto-update to Win 8.1, it no longer worked.  I don't have your technical knowledge - I just report what happened.  The problem is a year old.  Microsoft said on this thread several months ago that the problem had been recognised and that their engineers were working on it - but nothing happens.  Its still broke!

While I was on Windows 8.0, copy and paste of hyperlinks worked fine.  Following auto-update to Win 8.1, it no longer worked ... The problem is a year old. 

Windows 8 came with Internet Explorer 10. Windows 8.1 comes with Internet Explorer 11.

There has been one bugfix for Windows Live Mail since October 2010. I don't expect any more, I don't believe that anyone is working on bugfixes, and if this is indeed the case, I think it's shabby that support agents try to make us believe that it isn't.

“While I was on Windows 8.0, copy and paste of hyperlinks worked fine.  Following auto-update to Win 8.1, it no longer worked.”

I think there may be a distinction between the term of art “Windows 8" and Windows Explorer 8.  But thank you seem to confirmed what have written to jFiredog who claims this problem only arise with IE 11.  Like you I have been troubled by this issue since I installed WLM in 2010 at which time I had IE 8.  Yes, you are correct, it's been here for years and long before IE 11.  

The obvious work around no one has realized and without the risk of messing up your registry is to simply to compose your document in Word or Word Perfect and save it as an html.  Then retrieve that html document in your browser (I use Firefox but it probably doesn't matter).  From there you can copy and paste it into your WLM email.  You will see the hyperlink text. Send that email to yourself.  The links will be visible and they will function.  Furthermore it works in the reverse: you can copy and paste those lines into another email and they will be fine.

So it's simple: Hyperlinked text can only be pasted into a WLM email after it is first saved in html format.  Hyperlinked text in a Word or WPD document works fine and that is easily copied and pasted into any Word or WPD document no problem but that is not technically html until you save is as such and WLM (duh) will not accept it in any other format.  So the rule seems to be that in WLM you can create html hyperlinks but you can not paste them in (even within the same email).  Rule: simple compose on Word or WP and save that document as htlm.  That html saved text should, when retrieved in your browser, should copy and paste just fine into the WLM email.

“While I was on Windows 8.0, copy and paste of hyperlinks worked fine.  Following auto-update to Win 8.1, it no longer worked.”

Please lets make distinctions with a difference.  Windows v.  whichever Explorer it came with. My computer purchased in 2010 came with Windows 7 and whichever Explorer it came with.  I still run Window 7 but current Explorer is 11.

An operating system is like a balloon: poke it here and it pops out there. No one should mess with their registry to revert to Windows 8 standards unless they know that standard will not adversely impact other programs and create far more problems than they solve.  

We are missing the forest for the trees.  The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  The obvious work around no one has realized and without the risk of messing up your registry is to simply to compose your document in Word or Word Perfect and save it as an html.  Then retrieve that html document in your browser (I use Firefox but it probably doesn't matter).  From there you can copy and paste that into your WLM email.  You will see the hyperlink text. Send that email to yourself.  The links will be visible and they will function.  Furthermore it works in the reverse: you can copy and paste those lines into another email and they will be fine.

So it's simple: Hyperlinked text can only be pasted into a WLM email after it is first saved in html format.  Hyperlinked text in a Word or WPD document works fine and that is easily copied and pasted into any Word or WPD document no problem but that is apparently not technically html until you save is as such and WLM (duh) will not accept it in any other format.  So the rule seems to be that in WLM you can create html hyperlinks but you can not paste them in (even within the same email).  

Rule: simple compose on Word or WP and save that document as htlm.  That html saved text should, when retrieved in your browser,  copy and paste just fine into the WLM email.  Start with hyperlink text already saved in html format and the problem disappears – abracadabra.  No risk of mucking up the registry. 

Microsoft's disregard for problems like this is not just "shabby" but sleazy when they do it with full knowledge of the mess it makes in the lives of end-users who just want yo know what time it is and who have no interest in making a clock.