Windows Mail Tips, Tricks and Secrets

We all want the same: the same piece of chocolate cake, the same good health, and the same stunts from Windows Mail. Find out how to make Windows Mail do what most people want it to with these tips and tutorials.

Spice your emails with background sound in one of those formats in Windows Mail.

Ah, the sweet taste of freedom — a peculiar, superficial kind of freedom, of course. But freedom nonetheless: get your AIM Mail in Windows Mail in a very elegant manner.

Read and send your AOL mail in Windows Mail. You can even access all of your folders easily.

Do you want to download mail from your Windows Live Hotmail account into Windows Mail? Here's how to set that up.

Would you like to receive your Yahoo! Mail in Windows Mail? With YPOPs!, you can.

Do you want to combine the ubiquity and space of a Gmail account with the power and comfort of your Windows Mail? Here's how to set up access to your Gmail email in Windows Mail.

Spread the Zenbe email experience — to Windows Mail, for example. Here's how to set up a Zenbe account in Windows Mail using POP or IMAP.

Even if it doesn't say more than a thousand words, a picture in the background of your email can enhance it greatly. Here's how to add background images to messages in Windows Mail.

Add a recipient to a mailing list you have created in Windows Mail quickly, and without adding them to the address book, too.

Here's a fast, no-fuss method to build your Windows Mail address book.

From the To: or Cc: line of an email you have received right into your Windows Mail address book. Here's a streamlined way to add new contacts from existing emails.

Here's how you can add an image or an animation to your signature at the bottom of every message you send with Windows Mail.

Enrich your emails in Windows Mail with some music that will automatically play when the recipient opens them.

Send blind carbon copies of your email messages with Windows Mail. The regular recipients won't know that the Bcc recipients got a copy as well.

When you print an email in Windows Mail, characters, columns or lines are cut off and missing? Adjust the printer marginsor page orientation (portrait or landscape) and get the full message.

Never forget to sign a letter again with the help of Windows Mail, which can append your signature to outgoing emails automatically.

Backing up your precious emails and exporting them as .eml files becomes a drag and drop activity in Windows Mail.

(After I have made it sound difficult,) you'll be surprised how easy it is to create a copy of your Windows Mail address book (also known as Windows Contacts) as a backup or for migration to a new computer.

Create a backup of your blocked senders in Windows Mail, or carry them with you to a new computer.

Save a backup copy of your Windows Mail mail filters, or transfer them to a different computer.

Have Windows Mail send messages from certain senders to the trash automatically.

Put a ban on whole domains in Windows Mail and have it delete mail from senders belonging to that domain (everybody with an @about.com email address, for example) automatically.

Prevent Windows Mail or Outlook Express from downloading remote images automatically when you open or preview a message. This helps protect your privacy and stops Windows Mail and Outlook Express from validating your email address.

Windows Mail can help you collect the people you know in your address book by automatically adding everybody you reply to via email.

Set your priorities for messages right. Here's how to change the priority of an email you are composing in Windows Mail.

See what you want to see. Here's how to specify which info you want to see in a mailbox in Windows Mail.

Make the emails you send with Windows Mail more interesting and fancy by using custom font face and color and by — default.

Is the list of messages in a folder small, tiny and barely legible? Here's how to increase the font size (or choose a different font altogether) for message lists, folder names and other display items in Windows Mail.

Want to (appear to) be someone else? Here's how to change the name that appears in the From: line of emails you send with Windows Mail.

Make Windows Mail announce new emails your way by changing the sound they play for this event.

Say good-bye to the "Send/Rcv" button and have Windows Mail or Outlook Express check for and download new mail automatically, periodically and reliably for you in the background.

Does a message you write in Windows Mail contain some text that is heavily wrong and you know it (in a foreign language, for example). But you still want to check the spelling of the rest of the email? Here's how.

Make Windows Mail check the spelling of every email you send, when you send it.

Windows Mail lets me use signature A for aunt Annie, and signature L for you! Here's how to select a specific signature for a message you're composing in Windows Mail.

See which account any messages was received through immediately by having Windows Mail colorize emails accordingly and automatically.

The "e" in email stands for easy. Here's how to compose, address and send an email message in Windows Mail.

Do you want your email in Windows Mail to be filtered through a supreme anti-spam tool? Here's how to set up Windows Mail to work with POPFile.

Windows Mail can collect all your contact information in one place: a vCard.

If you send messages in Windows Mail from a command prompt or programmatically from another application, you can even specify default recipients, a default subject and suggested message text.

Beautiful emails with Windows Mail in two clicks.

Put all that great stationery to pretty use and create wonderful email messages in Windows Mail.

Email signatures can contain essential contact info, a witty quote or deep insight. Here's how to set up your signature in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

Do you want to use your letterhead in emails — automatically? Or have you just created a message so beautiful you may want to use its formatting again? Here's how you can save any email you are composing in Windows Mail or Outlook Express as stationery, a template for future emails preserving all the formatting and wording.

If your Inbox is full of mail in Windows Mail, set up folders to organize mail, get rid of stress. Here's how to do it.

Here's the door! (And woe to you if I find you in the Windows Live Mail trash instead...) — Here's how to purge mail immediately in Windows Live Mail, bypassing the "Trash" folder.

Prevent Windows Mail from suggesting mistyped or unused addresses by selectively deleting them from email address auto-completion (in the To:, Cc: and Bcc: fields).

Do you want to keep an email but not its bulky attachments? Here's how to detach files from emails you have received in Windows Mail.

Have you deleted a stationery from Windows Mail, but it still shows up in the list when you click "Create Mail"? Here's how to get rid of the obsolete and dysfunctional entry.

Does it annoy you when Windows Mail displays attached pictures inside the message? Here's how to make it show them as attached files only, leaving the message text alone.

Disable the message preview pane in Windows Mail to avoid getting worms or viruses by just browsing messages.

Do a bit of archeology and find out hidden details about emails in Windows Mail.

Back to the sources! Here's how to take a look under the hood of an email in Windows Mail!

If you send a message to an address book group in Windows Mail, you can edit the recipient list before delivery with this trick.

Edit every aspect of your messages in Windows Mail by turning to the HTML source. The options for advanced editing are endless there.

The Subject of a received email can be subject to change in Windows Mail: give incoming emails the meaningful Subject line you want and wish the sender had used.

If you can't stand the sound Windows Mail makes whenever new mail arrives, here's how to turn it off. If you'd like to be notified about incoming messages with a sound in Windows Mail, here's how to turn it on.

Save your Windows Mail contacts to a CSV file that lets you migrate and copy them to most other email programs and services.

It's easy to create a new rule from an existing message in Windows Mail. Here's how to use this feature to file all future email from the same sender to a special folder, for example.

Do you want to add new stationery to Windows Mail or remove some stale backgrounds? Here's how to locate and open the Windows Mail default stationery folder.

Locate your Windows Mail key in the Windows registry to tweak (and destroy) your settings, and to back up (and restore) them.

Have MIDI files you insert as background music in your emails stopped playing? Here's how to fix MIDI sound in Windows Mail.

Your Windows Mail stubbornly refuses to accept your changing the text size? Whatever you try, it jumps back to what it deems to one and only correct size? Here are the IE settings that let you change the font size in Windows Mail again.

Use a clean and simple way of forwarding emails in Windows Mail.

Let others participate in the great emails you get by forwarding them with Windows Mail.

See previous messages in a conversation right next to the new ones — automatically arranged by Windows Mail.

You don't want to keep emptying the "Deleted Items" folder? You don't want it to grow big and slow either? Here's how to make Windows Mail do the emptying for you — automatically and whenever you exit the program.

Make the emails you send go right to their recipients instead of just to Windows Mail's "Outbox" folder.

Can't see the remaining important messages because Windows Mail still displays all the remaining deleted messages in a folder? Here's how to hide the latter to highlight and see clearly the former.

Attachments can be highlights. Or dangerous lowlights. Here's how to make them stand out using a useful rule in Windows Mail.

Here's how you can make Windows Mail highlight mail from a certain sender automatically using a specific color.

You don't have to drive the highlighter squeakily across your monitor to mark some text important in your emails. Here's how to mimic a highlighter and change the background color of select words, characters or paragraphs in Windows Mail.

When Windows Mail goes Live, you can take your email accounts and data with you: here's how to import Windows Mail account settings, messages and folders into Windows Live Mail.

Get all your fine Windows Mail mail filters back.

With the help of a middleprogram and a cool hack, it is not only possible but also easy, swift and quite amazing an undertaking to migrate all your mail from Windows Mail or Outlook Express to Gmail.

If you particularly like (or dislike) a page on the web, it is easy to share it by inserting a link to it in an email with Windows Mail.

Send photos, drawings, and all kinds of images with your emails in Windows Mail so recipients can see them inside the message.

Self-extracting stationery may unzip itself, but it doesn't install on its own. But getting that stationery to work is not difficult either.

From downloaded stationery zip file to beautiful Windows Mail emails in a few steps.

Combine the advantages of having Windows Mail leave a copy of your mail at the server with a minimized risk that your account gets clogged up with mail.

Make Windows Mail keep a copy of each message it downloads on the server for later re-retrieval.

Want to find out what Windows Mail does, what it does not, and what it does wrongly as it tries to download mail from POP or IMAP accounts. Log your traffic for troubleshooting and valuable insights.

You can't send mail and all Windows Mail comes up with is a cryptic error number? Here's how to make Outlook Express create a detailed log of what happens so you can figure out — and fix — the problem.

Now listen, everybody, here's a message from Windows Mail, and here's how to mail everybody in your address book at once and easily.

How do you eliminate almost all spam from your Windows Mail Inbox? You allow only messages from the exclusive circle of known senders in.

If recipients of your emails complain about getting many, many messages with nothing but jumbled letters and numbers in them, it may be Windows Mail trying to turn one big email into many small messages. Fortunately, you can prevent it from attempting that and make it send normal mail instead.

Windows Mail asks you for the password to your email account every time you check for new messages? Even if the "Remember Password" field is grayed out, you can probably make Windows Mail remember, use and enter that password for you.

If recipients of emails you have composed in Windows Mail using stationery complain about red x's where the images should be, here's what to do.

Is Windows Mail not what comes up when you click an email address? Here's how to make Windows Mail your default in Windows for all things email (including the addresses).

Prevent Windows Mail from preventing you from opening and saving email attachments.

Windows Mail does not remember you want to read your mail maximized? Never mind, you can still make it display the messages to fill the screen.

Are you irritated by a background image you inserted in an email in Windows Mail showing up again at the right column? Here's how to prevent this, and how to make background pictures repeat only downwards or to the right.

Stop Windows Mail from disconnecting you automatically when it has finished exchanging mail.

Remain offline even if Windows Mail thinks you need an internet connection.

Don't like it how Windows Mail underlines every email address you type in a message and changes the color, too? Here's how to make email addresses look plain and good in emails (while optionally retaining the mailto: link functionality).

Are you stuck with tiny fonts when printing emails in Windows Mail? Here's how to print large, even with Windows Mail.

If you want to see your emails in print, here's how to become a publisher and create printouts of email messages from Windows Mail.

Have you received a graphically rich email and want to turn it into just a graphically rich printout? Here's how to print emails including their background graphics and colors in Windows Mail.

Since you have an adventurous soul and want to print only part of an email message, here's how to do this neatly in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

Turn Windows Mail into a really, really, really secure email reader by making it display all messages in plain text only by default.

Read emails faster and in a more comfortable way by increasing the font size of messages in Windows Mail.

Make Windows Mail receive mail from certain senders again.

Want to delete an old email account from your Windows Mail configuration? Here's how to clean your accounts list of stale data.

Do you want to place a logo at the very top of your email or make some stylized text touch reach the edges of a message? In Windows Mail, you can remove the top, bottom, right and left borders when composing an email.

Ask Windows Mail to ask for you to be notified when the recipient opens your message.

Want to know when your emails are read? Here's how to make Windows Mail request read receipts from recipients by default.

Want to send a message to yet another recipient, or did you get a delivery failure back and want to try again? Here's how to resend emails in Windows Mail.

Export the text from a message's body to a plain text file with Windows Mail.

Save inline images from emails and newsletters with Windows Mail.

Turn any (incoming or outgoing) email into great stationery easily with Windows Mail.

Get attached files out of Windows Mail and onto your Desktop (or into any other folder).

Drag attachments out of their message in Windows Mail or Outlook Express and into their final destination.

It is great that Bcc: recipients are not visible to other recipients of the same email, but does Windows Mail conceal to the sender who they bcc:ed, too? No, and here's how to uncover all the Bcc: addressees of a message you sent.

With unread messages spread across your Windows Mail Inbox, wouldn't it be nice to hide the mail already seen? Here's how to see only new and unread emails in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

Send any document around the world to any email address in seconds with Windows Mail.

Send a message in plain text in Windows Mail to make sure everybody can receive it properly.

Distribute a message to the mailing list you have set up in Windows Mail.

When you send an email to a group of recipients, would you rather not have everybody be able to see all the other people's names and addresses? Here's how easily that is accomplished in Windows Mail.

Explore the Windows Mail keyboard shortcut that gets you new messages, and delivers all emails waiting to get to their recipients.

Want to send a bunch of files easily and in a compact form? Here's how to compress multiple documents in a single zip file and send it conveniently with Windows Mail.

Put messages in the Windows Mail outbox instead of delivering them immediately so you can still edit them before they go off to the recipient.

Make sure everyone can read your messages composed in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

Change the email address Windows Mail puts in the "From:" field by default when you create a new message or click on an email address on a web site, for example.

Tell Windows Mail to choose the signature inserted automatically depending on the account used to send a message.

Not at the office? Away from all computers? Email without reach? While you enjoy the time, Windows Mail can dutifully and automatically reply to incoming emails, letting people know when you'll be back to respond in person.

If you want to reply smarter, not harder, try this lazy and comfortable way of creating emails in Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

Show the account in the Windows Mail message list to see immediately which account received an email.

Sort the emails in your Windows Mail or Outlook Express Inbox or in any other folder from newest to oldest, by size, alphabetically, or by another order you desire.

Has Windows Mail arranged your email folders in the order it deems correct and now does not allow you to place the mailboxes most important to you on top? Here's how to sort your list of Windows Mail folders in the order you prefer.

No mouse is needed to change your view in Windows Mail or Outlook Express. Here's how to change folders fast with a swift keyboard shortcut.

Don't waste precious Windows Mail toolbar estate with redundant text. Here's how to turn off the text labels on the Outlook Express toolbar buttons.

Ever sent an email to the wrong address by accepting what Windows Mail suggested when you started typing? Here's how to disable (or, if you want convenience back, enable) email address auto-completion in Windows Mail.

Specify whether Windows Mail should download full messages or only headers automatically for IMAP folders.

Beautify your every email in Windows Mail by defining a default stationery that is automatically applied to every new message you write.

Convert your favorite IncrediMail letters to stationery you can use in Windows Mail.

Use bold face, custom fonts, background sound, inline images, and more in Windows Mail.

If you use fancy formatting in your emails, the signature does not have to pale beside it. Here's how to use HTML to create just as fancy signatures in Windows Mail.

This Windows Mail keyboard shortcut for deleting mail is faster than the 'Del' key!

Have your vCard attached to outgoing emails automatically by Windows Mail.

Even if you have turned to the secure plain text mode in Windows Mail, it's easy to view select messages with rich HTML formatting turned on.

Look behind an email's pretty face and see its source in Windows Mail. You can even view a message's source without opening the message itself.

Extracting stationery can be a tricky matter, so pay attention!

Do you want Windows Mail to highlight the HTML source code while you compose a message or do you find that distracting? Here's how to turn source edit colorizing on or off.

If you opened an attachment directly from Windows Mail, made some changes, saved them and now find they are gone, here's you change to recover the file you edited.

How do you eliminate almost all spam from your Windows Live Mail or Windows Mail Inbox? You allow only messages from the exclusive circle of known senders in.