Update for Windows Live Essentials Mail 2012 (KB3093594) kills WLM 2012

Microsoft is discontinuing support of Windows Live Mail servers in June.

Not quite. Sorry I don't have time to counter all posts complaining about the latest information coming from Microsoft. Here's a copy & paste of a reply I wrote earlier:

I'm sorry that MS have yet again managed to muddy the waters with their unfortunate choice of words. I have had an exchange with the Outlook.com manager concerned and finally nailed him down to writing Exchange supports POP3 and IMAP and as such, WLM connecting to accounts via those protocols will continue to work.

The only reason for this current spate of activity (a misleadingly-worded Office support article, a locked sticky discussion thread in this forum and an email to selected Windows Live Mail users) is that from the very beginning of the migration to Outlook Mail, most Windows Live Mail users have been quarantined. Any Outlook.com account being accessed via HTTP DeltaSync was spared the migration while they attempted to find a way of mitigating the effects of the migration. Those attempts failed signally with the release, re-release and eventual withdrawal of KB3093594, so it looks like they've given up on patching Windows Live Mail 2012 to work with EAS. From late June onwards, the quarantine will be lifted and the accounts concerned migrated to Outlook Mail.

Nothing else seems to have changed or to be about to change. The only real casualty of the migration is calendar synchronization, which won't work at all on 16.4.3528, crashes the program on 16.4.3263 on Windows 10 and possibly Windows 8.1 too, and works unreliably on 16.4.3264.

• POP3 mail accounts - no change
• IMAP mail accounts - no change
• NNTP news accounts - no change
• LDAP contacts directory accounts - no change
• Account contacts - no change, except that
  • Categories no longer synchronize to People
  • Categories do synchronize between instances of Windows Live Mail
• Default contacts - no change
• Default calendar - no change
• RSS feeds - no change
• Photo email - no change
• Storage folders - no change
• Search for a message - no change
• Find a message - no change
• etc. etc.

This article was written almost a year ago. It still applies: Windows Live Mail and Outlook Mail

I have just installed Mozilla's Thunderbird and it is as good as WLM 2012. Try it and see. And, it also takes several email accounts under one column. The only snag so far is that it does not give a Quick View of all your accounts' Inbox. But I guess for a free email client, am not complaining.

Is there anyone from the Microsoft hierarchy reading reading all these? What does it take for MS to keep WLM2012 and do away with their primitive and user UNFRIENDLY Windows 10 Mail?

Come on guys, Microsoft is huge to keep an email client, so popular by thee looks of it.

There is a POP Enable in the Outlook.com email settings. We should be able to access outlook.com accounts via POP with email clients other than WLM. I've tried accessing my outlook.com account with WLM using POP settings with negative results.

Me, I've had enough of MS **** since Dec 2015 concerning WLM and my email. I don't want web mail, I'm not going to xxgrade to W10, and I'm not going to pay $99 every year for a Outlook2016 subscription. I'll be using another email client for my 1 outlook and 3 Hotmail accounts. And when I do decide to buy another laptop, it will be an Apple.

Yes but will Thunderbird work with the new synchronisation method that will be introduced after June 30?

Does anybody have any details on what the technology is? It obviously isn't POP or IMAP!

I agree with TruieRock2 that Windows Live Mail 2011 and 2012 are the best email applications ever that Microsoft offered. 2011 is now dead and it looks like 2012 will soon follow suit. The Email app that comes with Windows 10 is ABSOLUTE rubbish, sorry Microsoft! It is like giving a beggar a piece of dried bread for sustenance.

Why don't you issue a Windows update to Windows 10 and update the Mail app to something of more user-friendly app that supports several email accounts rather than that huge, empty screen with all sorts of graphics which NO ONE needs!

There are many other email apps out there - FREE - and people will not buy the Office package just to use Outlook which, as TrueRock2 said, is an overkill.

I have just downloaded Mozilla's Thunderbird email  - a standalone, offline package-  and it is a rather rich email app with a host of features. I know where I am going once Windows Live Mail 2012 is discontinued.

Microsfot, do not, I repeat, do not kill Live Mail 2012 or.... simply upgrade Windows 10 Mail to the same level of the Live Mail 2012

Outlook.com is not the same as having a dedicated, standalone email package like Live Mail 2012, plus it is an on line service which means every morning I will have to log in and keep it logged in.

I've said my piece. Mozilla Thunderbird, here I come.