Finding the Windows Mail Store Folder

Locate the POP3 email store folder on your computer

You can see your Windows Mail emails in your Mail inbox and other folders, but these messages also live somewhere else on your drive. Locating the folder where Windows Mail keeps its folders and messages is not immediately apparent. Still, it’s not difficult to find if you use the POP3 protocol. After you locate the folder, you can back up your email.

Identify Your Windows Mail Store Folder Location

The Windows Mail store folder can only be located if you use POP3 with Windows Mail. POP3 is designed to save .eml files on your computer. If you use IMAP with Windows Mail, the mail isn’t downloaded and stored as .eml files, so you can’t back up email in this manner.

To find the Windows Mail store folder:

In Windows Mail, select Tools > Options from the menu.

Go to the Advanced tab and select Maintenance.

Click the Store Folder button.

Highlight the full folder location by clicking the location with the right mouse button and choosing Select All from the pop-up menu.

Press Ctrl+C to copy the string.

Open the Windows Mail Store Folder in Windows Explorer

Now that you have the path to your Windows Mail store folder in the clipboard, it’s easy to go to that folder in Windows Explorer.

Press Windows+R.

Press Ctrl+V to paste the folder location in the Open box.

Click OK to open the store folder in a Windows Explorer window.

After you open the store folder, go back to Windows Mail and close the Store Location and Options dialogs with the Cancel buttons and close the Maintenance dialog using Close.

If You Can’t Launch Windows Mail

If you can’t launch Windows Mail to identify the store folder in use, follow these steps:

Look in this standard location: C:\Users\­AppData\Local\Packages\ and open the folder \LocalState\Indexed\LiveComm. If you don’t find the store folder there, try C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail.

Locate the Mail folder and open it to see the .eml files inside.

How to Make Windows Mail Your Default Email Program

Quinn Dombrowski/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

When you click on an email address in your browser, you want Windows Mail to come up. Other than mere convenience, making Windows Mail your default Windows email program can solve a number of mysterious problems. Fortunately, it is a relatively easy thing to do, but the method used depends on what version of Windows you have.

Instructions in this article apply to Windows 10 and Windows 8.

How to Make Windows Mail Your Default Email Program in Windows 10

Microsoft uses Windows Mail as the default email program in Windows 10. However, if you or someone else changed it to another email client, such as Microsoft Outlook, you have the ability to change it back to Windows Mail (which is called simply «Mail» in Windows 10) at any time. Accessing Default Apps in Windows Settings makes changing the default email program fast and easy.

Type «default» in the search box next to the Start menu.

Choose Default Apps from the list of results. The Default Apps window will open.

Select the application listed under Email. The Choose an App menu will appear.

Select Mail.

Exit the Default Apps window. Windows Mail will now be set as your computer’s default email application.

How to Make Windows Mail Your Default Email Program in Windows 8

Microsoft uses Windows Mail as the default email program in Windows 8 and 8.1. However, if you or someone else changed it to another email application, such as Outlook, you have the ability to change it back to Windows Mail (which is called simply «Mail» in Windows 8 and 8.1) whenever you choose.

To make sure Windows Mail is your default email program and picks up all requests to send and read mail, you must access Default Programs in the Control Panel.

Enter «Default» in the Search Control Panel box and choose Default Programs.

Select the Associate a File Type or Protocol with a program link.

Scroll down the list until you find Protocols on the Associate a file type or protocol with a specific program window.

Double-click MAILTO under Protocols.

Select Mail under How do you want to open this type of link (mailto)?

Select Close. Windows Mail will now be set as your computer’s default email application.

How to Export Contacts From Windows Mail

Don’t leave your contacts behind when you change email services

If you’ve built one address book in Windows Mail, you shouldn’t have to build that same address book again, even if you switch email programs or email services.

You can export Windows contacts to a file format called CSV (comma-separated values), from which most other email programs and email services can import your contacts.​

This procedure works for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. In Windows 10, the People app contains the mail list; you cannot export contacts from the Windows 10 Mail app.

Export Contacts and Email Addresses From Windows Mail

To save your Windows Mail 8 and earlier contacts to a CSV file in Windows 8:

Select Tools > Windows Contacts from the menu in Windows Mail.

Select Export in the toolbar.

Make sure CSV (Comma Separated Values) is highlighted.

Select Export. Pick a folder to receive the exported contacts or open a new folder.

Type a folder name such as «Windows Mail contacts» under the File name.

Click Save then Next.

Make sure all address book fields you want to be included are checked. Note that Windows Mail does not export first and last names separately, even though there are First Name and Last Name fields. Choose Name instead.

Click Finish. Close the remaining windows.

Exporting Contacts From the Windows 10 People App

You can’t export your contacts located in the People app of a Windows 10 computer to a CSV file. However, you can do this from your online Microsoft account and the online People app. From there, you choose Manage | Export Contacts to export the contacts to a CSV file. Go to the other email service and use the Import command to import your contacts to that service.

Windows 10 email .exe file location

I use Canon MP Navigator to scan and attach documents to emails.

Navigator does not automatically recognize the Window 10 email client.

I can manually add any mail client BUT I need to know the location of the .exe file, Window 10 seems to use:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Mail\en-US\WinMail.exe.mui

Navigator does not recognized this because of the .mui extension.

Canon help don’t know the answer and referred me to Microsoft.

Any help appreciated.

Replies (16) 

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Thank you for posting the query on Microsoft Community. I am glad to assist you on this.

Let me inform you that, there is no .exe file extension for Windows mail app, it is by design we have .mui extension.

For additional information you can refer the below article.

Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance with Windows. We are glad to assist you.

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I can manually add any mail client .

I’m inclined to say that Mail isn’t a true mail client, which is why it doesn’t respond to requests from Windows like Send to > Mail recipient or Send > page by email in a browser. For the scanner to be able to send documents automatically, you’ll have to install a functional client like Outlook, Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird.

Enabling Windows Mail in Windows 7

Enabling Windows Mail in post-Vista Microsoft OSs :: CONTENT

end faq

Outlook Express, to put it mildly, is not the ideal mail client, but it was (and still is — for users of XP and earlier versions of Windows) popular due to ease of its using and because it is integrated into the operating system. We know that it has been replaced with Windows Mail in Vista, but this «new» mail client is not much different from OE on the interface and functionality. The buggy Vista had not have long life and finally gave way to Windows 7. It has been decided by Microsoft to deactivate WinMail and to promote Windows Live mailer instead. I have often been configuring my customers’ computers with freshly obtained Win7, designed to replace the old ones running XP and below, and been transferring an information including OE accounts, messages and addresses. Most of these customers are unadvanced users (otherwise they would manage this task themselves) and want to have mailer they were accustomed to over the years of using. Hereby a method of forcible enabling of WinMail in Win7 described in this article might come in handy.

The folder WinMail is present in Windows 7, but the program’s user interface (msoe.dll) is deactivated and locked. It’s required to unlock msoe.dll and replace it with the active one of Vista.

First of all you should determine whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit version of the system. When in doubt — click: How to determine whether my PC is running Windows 7 of 32 bit or 64 bit. Screenshots are clickable.

If you’ve already tried to run WinMail, it can stay in the processes and thus be locked. Before performing the procedure, remove it from the process list if you know how, but if you don’t — you’d better restart your computer.

Now download and unzip:

EnableWinMailWin7.zip
2011-02-06 Windows 1.72 MB 22630	Download

The archive contains all necessary stuff for our purpose. So you can start the process:

1. Run the WinMailEdit.reg file.

It is very important to do it before you perform steps 3 and 4!

2. Run the command file unhide.cmd. This will remove the attribute «hidden» off the file WinMail.exe.

3. Unlock msoe.dll. For that do the following:

a) Run Add_Take_Ownership.reg, thereby activating the Take Ownership service. (The package also contains Remove_Take_Ownership.reg for deactivating of the service.)

b) Open folder Windows Mail in Windows Explorer. Its location is:
%SystemDrive%\Program Files\Windows Mail.

Note that if the OS is 64-bit, you are still working with the folder Program Files, not Program Files (x86), which also has a subfolder Windows Mail.

c) Right click on the file msoe.dll. Select Take Ownership in the pop-up menu.

4. Replace the original but disabled library msoe.dll (back it up beforehand, just in case) with the operating one of Vista. For a 32-bit system you can find it in the archive msoe_32.zip, for 64-bit — in msoe_64.zip respectively.

That’s it, the program is working now. You can open accounts or import data from OE.

After installing of some hotfixes or service packs Windows Mail might does not open again. In that case reiterate steps 3 b, c (and if you have deactivated Take Ownership after previous attempts, so do also a), and 4. Do not forget about this.

UPD 1: Following user feedback, the second part of the article has been written — Enabling Windows Mail in Windows 7 — retrospective review three years later. Some special cases when any step didn’t work the way as it is presented here, are reconsidered in detail. If this failure happened to you — click the link — and, most likely, there you will find a solution.

UPD 2: For Windows 8 and 8.1, 32 and 64 bit: Enabling Windows Mail in Windows 8.

UPD 3: For Windows 10 after Fall Creators Update (v.1709): Implementation of Windows Mail into Windows 10 version 1709.

UPD 4: Windows 10 after v.1709 — now MAPI is also back to work. Implementation of Windows Mail into Windows 10 version 1709. MAPI restored!.