Windows Live Mail Upgrade

Microsoft's Outlook Team announced on May 5th, 2016 that the Windows Live Mail application will reach it's End of Life (EOL) on June 30th, 2016. Many people loved the simplicity and functinality of Outlook Express and then Windows LiveMail.

We decided to develop an email client as the best replacement for Windows Live Mail.

Hexamail Flow can be used to replace of Windows LiveMail simply and easily with many of the same features and much more.

Installing Hexamail Flow is easy. Just download the installer and then run it. Click Next and choose the initial options you require. When prompted choose to import your Windows LiveMail (or Outlook Express) accounts. This will import the basic settings. You will need to resupply the login passwords to access the accounts. At this stage only the account information is imported. To import email from Windows LiveMail see the next section!

The next step is to import any "offline email" from your existing Windows LiveMail installation. If you were only using IMAP accounts in Windows LiveMail then the email is likely still on the server and Hexamail will automatically download it once you have logged in to the imported accounts. If you were previously using POP3 email or had local storage or offline folders containing email then this step will help you import those email.

The first thing do to is to EXPORT your email from Windows LiveMail to a drive or folder with plenty of space. For a large email account this could be many GB of files, so be sure to check you have sufficient diskspace before exporting your email. First go to the top left menu and click the dropdown button. Choose "Export Email" then "Email messages". Next choose the export format. Choose Windows Live Mail

Windows Live Mail Export Format

Next choose specific folders to export or all email data

Windows Live Mail Export Folders

Choose where you wish to export to. Remember to ensure there is sufficient disk space for exporting all your Windows Live Mail email content.

Export Live Mail to disk

You may have to wait some time until Windows Live Mail has finished exporting and the progress bar has completed. Once complete - open Hexamail Flow

Next we want to import your exported Windows Live Mail email into Hexamail Flow. To do this open Hexamail Flow. Be sure to click on the email tab in the bottom left to show the email folder tree. Then click on the Local Storage account and right click and choose Import Folders...

Import folders

Next choose the folders on disk to import into Hexamail Flow

Choose folders to import

Select whether to flatten all the email into a single folder in Hexamail or retian the imported folder structure from Windows Live Mail

Choose how to import

Hexamail will automatically detect the format of the email in the folders and import the email. This will be done in the background and the progress can be seen in the bottom status bar which will show the progress for each folder as it is imported. Folders and email will appear as you continue working in Hexamail Flow.

Congratulations! You have now upgraded Windows Live Mail to Hexamail Flow and can continue working with your existing accounts and any offline email data that you had stored in Windows Live Mail.