If you’ve recently purchased a new computer or have upgraded to Windows Vista, one of the first things you’ll notice is that the trusty old e-mail client, Outlook Express is no more. Like many Vista changes, e-mail has changed. In rapid succession, Outlook Express was replaced first by Windows Mail and soon thereafter Microsoft Windows Live Mail.
Keep in mind that OE, as it was fondly called, was actually part of Internet Explorer. But along came Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer 7 no longer brings with it its companion, Outlook Express. This isn’t a problem for Vista users as Vista comes with Microsoft Windows Mail preinstalled.
However, users of Windows XP who need to reinstall Outlook Express for some reason won’t find many resources for doing so. If you have an original installation disc for an earlier version of Internet Explorer (pre-IE 7), one option would be to uninstall IE 7 and reinstall the earlier version from the disc - and that may not even be possible. Microsoft has removed all OE downloads from their site. Another option is to download Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 from Microsoft which should have OE 6.0 included in the installation program.
If you need or prefer to replace Outlook Express, your best bet is to download and install Microsoft Windows Live Mail. It’s easy to do and works just fine. In fact, at its heart, it’s really just a dressed up incarnation of OE with a pretty interface and a new name.
Windows Live Mail is an improvement over OE with added features such as a built-in feed reader, the ability to manage web-based e-mails from accounts such as Google, Yahoo, or Hot Mail, instant messaging, and more. It will take you a while to get used to the new look but after spending time exploring it, you’ll soon find that Windows Live Mail is quite useful and easy to use. Many of the same tasks are handled the same way, so there’s not too much of a learning curve. In fact, you may even wonder how you survived so long without a built-in feed reader or centralized e-mail management program.
