What is Windows Live Mail?

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by Windows

Overview

Windows Live Mail is published by Windows. You can find out more about Windows Live Mail at its official website or at Windows's website.


How do I clean Windows Live Mail?

Windows Live Mail may store excess, temporary data on your computer that can take up valuable space. It may also store private data such as passwords or browsing history in the registry or on the file system. The easiest way to erase this data is by downloading AppCleaner, it is 100% free and about 1MB in size. A portable version is also available.

Clean Windows Live Mail
with AppCleaner

If you want to clean Windows Live Mail manually, you can follow the steps outlined below. There are five locations in the file system where Windows Live Mail stores data that can be cleaned. Additionally, Windows Live Mail stores private data in one registry key.

Registry

To clean the registry from data stored by Windows Live Mail, you can use the Microsoft Registry Editor (regedit.exe) which is installed by default on all Windows operating systems. First of all, open regedit.exe by carrying out these steps:

  • Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
  • Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
  • Type regedit.exe
  • Hit Enter

Now use regedit.exe to delete the registry key:

    • Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER from the root of the tree in the left pane.
    • Expand Software.
    • Expand Microsoft.
    • Click Windows Live Mail.
    • Right-click SearchFolderVersion in the right pane.
    • Choose Delete from the context menu.
    • Click Yes.

Files

To clean your file system from files stored by Windows Live Mail and to gain free disk space, examine the following file system locations. First of all, open a command prompt window:

  • Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
  • Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
  • Type cmd
  • Hit Enter

Now list all the files stored by Windows Live Mail that can be cleaned:

  1. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  2. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir /s {folder}\*.log where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  3. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  4. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir /s {folder}\*.jrs where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  5. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  6. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir /s {folder}\*.chk where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  7. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  8. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir /s {folder}\*.rss where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  9. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  10. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir {folder}\Backup where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  11. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  12. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir {folder}\* where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  13. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir {folder}\Backup where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  14. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  15. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir {folder}\*.tmp where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  16. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir /s {folder}\* where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  17. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
    • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows*Mail
  18. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir {folder}\* where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.
  19. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir /s {folder}\*.MSMessageStore where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.

Once you have identified the files stored by Windows Live Mail that you want to clean, delete them using the del command or Windows Explorer.

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