Following the recent release of the new operating system Vista from Microsoft a new email application has been released, Windows Mail, an e-mail and newsgroup client included exclusively in Windows Vista, this has replaced Outlook Express.  Windows Mail is provided as part of the install to ensure the user can send and receive emails.

We have created a setup guidline for setting up and administring an account within Microsoft Windows Mail, these can be seen below;

Add a new account | Edit an existing account

Other Microsoft email applications include:

Office 2002 | Office 2003 | Office 2007 | Outlook Express

The differences from Outlook Express and Windows Mail can be seen here

New Features:

• Windows Mail uses IPv6 if the domain name for the servers resolves to IPv6


• Mail messages are now stored in individual files instead of in a single database file. A transactional index database based on the Extensible Storage Engine enables real-time searching and improves the stability and the reliability of the stored data. In case of corruption, the indices can be rebuilt from the mail files.


• Account setup information is no longer stored in the registry. It is instead stored alongside the mail itself, making it possible to copy an entire Windows Mail configuration and mail store to another machine in a single step.


• Features like Bayesian junk-mail filtering and top-level domain and encoding blocking have been added.


• A phishing filter has been incorporated as well, protecting users from web sites that have been identified as being malicious.


• A preconfigured link to Microsoft's newsgroups, Microsoft Help Groups has been added. Some additional functionality has been layered on top of the standard newsgroup functionality to have individual threads be marked as a "question" or an "answered question". Postings may be rated as well.


• With the release of Windows Vista, Windows Mail has a documented COM-based API.  Previously, the Outlook Express object model was undocumented, except for Simple MAPI messaging functionality.

Removed Features

• Unlike its predecessor Outlook Express, Windows Mail does not have WebDAV, making it incapable of accessing web based email services through WebDAV.
  


• Although Outlook Express integrates with Windows Messenger, Windows Mail has no such integration. A more full-featured free downloadable application, Windows Live Mail integrates with Windows Live Contacts.


• Unlike Outlook Express, Windows Mail does not allow users to switch Identities or manage multiple identities within one running instance of the program. Instead, identities are now tied to the user account and to create additional users or identities, a new user account has to be created.