WL Mail Desktop: Please give me backup option
I am a user of Windows Live Mail Desktop. I use it daily since the first refresh build was released, first beta is somewhat sluggish in performance. The latest refresh build 1223 is impressive. It come with a lot improvement in several area including performance, UI and some bug fixed. One of new feature is “Migration Failure” that help to import data form Vista’s Windows Mail to WLMd. Windows Mail is improved version of outlook express. Since it no longer support http mail (free web mail service like Hotmail, live mail, Gmail, etc.) I don’t use it. It’s useless to me but may be good for those who using mail service subscription, paid service.
After used it for awhile I notice something that needed. For those who use Windows XP and preparing for migration to Vista or the one (like me) who rather often re-install Windows Vista needing backup or transfer option. Imagine that you have 5 or more accounts in WLMd and big number of picture and files in inbox. What happened if you have to install WLMd and download all mail back to your computer every time you re-install Windows. Download every thing back to computer have some benefits like offline access and bandwidth saving (for those who have limited bandwidth usage per month). To add every account and download contents back to computer every time I re-install Windows is terrible work and it is time consuming. I hate to do this process but I found no way or help from Vista’ Windows Easy Transfer or WLMd itself.
For this I have some suggestions:
- Backup option: enable user to backup or export their setting (references), all account with content (mail, files, photos, etc.) to some kind of media (CD, DVD, USB Flash Drive, or HDD) and enable them to import all of these after new installation.
- Easy Transfer: one of very useful feature in Windows Vista is Windows Easy Transfer that enable user to transfer their files and setting between computers. Unfortunately, WLMd is not including in the list (for setting and content). I found it great if we can use Windows Easy Transfer to transfer every thing from WLMd. Windows Live Messenger 8.1 have this feature but it limited to only application setting not whole things in AppData folder.
One more thing for additional improvement is the synchronization between WLMd and Mail Server (like Hotmail and live mail). Every day I got dialog informed about failed sync maybe because of either WLMd or mail server.