Windows Live Mail

The free desktop mail program that replaced Outlook Express, cut off from Outlook.com in 2016 and left to die in 2017

Shut down
19902026

Windows Live Mail was Microsoft's free desktop email client, released on 6 November 2007 as the successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail and later bundled in Windows Live Essentials 2009 and 2011 and Windows Essentials 2012. It handled POP, IMAP, Hotmail, RSS feeds, newsgroups and a calendar. Microsoft cut it off from Outlook.com at the end of June 2016 and ended all support, and the download, on 10 January 2017.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2006
  2. April 2006 other
    Windows Live Mail Desktop beta

    Invitation-only successor to Outlook Express.

  3. 2007
  4. 6 November 2007 Launch
    Windows Live Mail 12.0

    Ships in the Windows Live suite; Hotmail, POP, IMAP, RSS, newsgroups.

  5. 2009
  6. January 2009 Version
    Windows Live Essentials 2009

    Wave 3 adds a calendar and per-account folders.

  7. 2010
  8. 30 September 2010 Version
    Windows Live Essentials 2011

    The ribbon arrives; Windows XP is dropped.

  9. 2012
  10. 7 August 2012 Version
    Windows Essentials 2012

    The last version.

  11. 2016
  12. 6 May 2016 Shutdown announced
    Outlook.com sync to end 30 June 2016

    Microsoft emails users; IMAP is the only workaround.

  13. 2017
  14. 10 January 2017 Shutdown
    Support ends, download withdrawn

    Windows Essentials 2012 reaches end of life.

The site through time

Browse windows.microsoft.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Microsoft 2007–2017 Founded

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: In May 2016 Microsoft emailed Windows Live Mail 2012 users to say the program could not talk to the rebuilt Outlook.com and would stop syncing Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and MSN accounts after 30 June 2016 unless they switched to POP or IMAP. On 10 January 2017 support for the whole Windows Essentials 2012 suite ended and the installer was withdrawn. Microsoft pointed people at the Mail app built into Windows 8 and 10.

Our analysis: Windows Live Mail was the last of a line that ran from Internet Mail and News through Outlook Express and Windows Mail: a free, local, three-pane email client for people who did not own Office. Microsoft stopped wanting to maintain that line once Windows had a built-in Mail app and Outlook.com had become the product. Nothing broke; the servers simply moved on and the client was not updated to follow them, which for an email program is the same as being switched off.

History [edit]

After Outlook Express

Outlook Express had shipped with every copy of Windows since 1997 and Windows Vista renamed it Windows Mail, but by 2006 Microsoft wanted its consumer software out of the operating system and under the Windows Live banner. Windows Live Mail Desktop went into an invitation beta in the spring of 2006 and the first finished version, 12.0, arrived on 6 November 2007 as part of the Windows Live suite alongside Messenger, Photo Gallery and Writer. It imported Outlook Express and Windows Mail accounts, added Hotmail through the DeltaSync protocol, and put RSS feeds and Usenet newsgroups in the same folder tree as mail. It ran on XP, so it became the upgrade path for millions of Outlook Express users.

The 2009 (Wave 3) release added a calendar and grouped mail by account. Windows Live Essentials 2011, on 30 September 2010, gave it the Office ribbon and dropped XP; Windows Essentials 2012, on 7 August 2012, was the last version and quietly the last new desktop mail client Microsoft ever shipped outside Office. By then Windows 8 had a Mail app of its own and Microsoft had renamed Hotmail to Outlook.com.

Cut off, then abandoned

The rebuild of Outlook.com onto the Office 365 infrastructure in 2015 and 2016 broke DeltaSync. In early May 2016 Microsoft emailed everyone using Windows Live Mail 2012 with an Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live or MSN address: after 30 June 2016 the program would no longer send or receive that mail. The workaround, reconfiguring the account as IMAP, worked but lost the two-way sync of folders and contacts, and Microsoft did not recommend it; it recommended the Windows 10 Mail app or Outlook.

On 10 January 2017 support for Windows Essentials 2012 ended and the installer disappeared from Microsoft.com. Installed copies keep running on Windows 10 to this day, which is why the program still has a devoted following of people who liked a mail client with folders, a proper compose window and no subscription.

The domain today

The old download pages on windows.microsoft.com redirect to a support notice saying Windows Essentials 2012 is no longer available and its programs are unsupported.

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Sources [edit]

  1. Windows Live Mail review Google Operating System blog 19 April 2006 [archived]
  2. Windows Live Essentials 2011 released Neowin 30 September 2010 [archived]
  3. Windows Live Essentials 2011 Microsoft Support 30 September 2010 [archived]
  4. Windows Live Mail 2012 end of Outlook support gHacks 6 May 2016 [archived]
  5. Microsoft will stop supporting its Windows Essentials 2012 suite in January Digital Trends 18 October 2016 [archived]
  6. How to replace Windows Essentials 2012 after support ends in January How-To Geek 6 January 2017 [archived]

Last verified: 16 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).