What happened to Outlook Express? If you used Windows B.V. (Before Vista), you might be surprised to discover that Outlook Express no longer exists. It's been tarted up a bit and renamed. Welcome to Windows Mail.
You have three good reasons to use Windows Mail: inertia, inertia, and inertia. All the other reasons aren't very convincing. However, Windows Mail can convert your old Outlook Express (OE) messages to Windows Mail messages.
Microsoft currently offers the following four very different e-mail programs (and countless variants):
New in Windows Vista, Windows Mail is just the old Outlook Express with a thin coat of fresh paint. Two of the new features — junk-mail filtering and a phishing filter — are worth the effort, and another — mail search indexing — comes along with the rest of the Vista ride.
Windows Mail stores incoming messages on your computer, like a traditional e-mail program. Windows Mail can be jury-rigged to pick up messages from a Hotmail (that is, Windows Live Mail), AOL, Yahoo! Mail, or other regular "POP3" e-mail account. When you retrieve messages from any of those services, they're moved onto your PC, so your mail doesn't hang around on the Internet indefinitely.
Microsoft Office Outlook, in a dozen different flavors (Outlook 2000 SP3, Outlook 2003 SP1 and SP2, Outlook 2007 — you get the idea), rates as the biggest, most bloated, most capable e-mail program available.
Outlook has absolutely nothing in common with Windows Mail — or Outlook Express before it — except that both programs (usually) download mail and store it on your computer, as opposed to leaving your mail sitting around on the Internet. Most people get Outlook as part of Microsoft Office.
To further add to the confusion: Outlook was part of the Office 2003 Student & Teacher Edition, the low-cost version of Office that sold like hotcakes. But the new, improved Office 2007 Home & Student Edition doesn't have Outlook.
Windows Live Mail, formerly known as Hotmail, has hundreds of millions of users worldwide. The big advantage to Windows Live Mail: You can get at your mail using any convenient Web browser. Your messages stay on the Internet, so you can play with your mail while you're logged on at LAX and pick up right where you left off when you log on in Timbuktu. Every few months, Microsoft releases a new version of Hotmail or Live Mail.
Windows Live Mail Desktop, which isn't anything like Windows Live Mail, Outlook, or Windows Mail, except it downloads mail from the Internet to your computer and it has junk e-mail–filtering capabilities. Its main saving grace: Windows Live Mail Desktop lets you bring in mail from Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Mail, AOL, and most "normal" e-mail accounts. Also, Windows Live Mail Desktop supports Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. Someday Windows Live Mail Desktop will replace Windows Mail, but as of this writing, it's still an island unto itself. In particular, migrating data from Outlook Express/Windows Mail can present challenges. Being a "Live" product, though — and thus outside the Windows development cycle — it can change very quickly.
Microsoft really wants you to dump Windows Mail and pick up Windows Live Mail Desktop. Why? Advertising. That's why you see a link to download Windows Live Mail Desktop in the Vista Welcome Center — you're given an opportunity to go online and download Windows Live Mail Desktop before you even have a chance to open Windows Mail. Rest assured: Windows Mail is an albatross.
If you're looking for something better than Windows Mail and you don't want to keep your mail on the Internet, Windows Live Mail Desktop is worth checking out: Live.com
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