"Offering free computer help, hints, and tips to the Internet populace." Now with over 3,820 tips!

Windows Live Mail

Stop Including Messages in a Reply

SUMMARY: For personal preference or due to potentially large message lengths, keep Windows Live Mail from including original e-mails in replies.

When replying to e-mail via Windows Live Mail, the original message is placed at the end of the reply. This way when you respond to a message, if the recipient reads a lot of e-mail they will not have to search through their archives to remind themselves of the conversation topic.

Unfortunately, in long conversations these message replies can get quite long. Thus, some people may prefer not to include entire conversations in the e-mail replies. To turn off this feature:

1. Access the Windows Live Mail menu by clicking the menu button (see the screenshot to the right) or press Alt + M.

2. Select "Options".

3. Click the "Send" tab.

4. Underneath "Sending", uncheck "Include message in reply".

5. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

EXPERT USERS: The Registry Entry for this configuration item can be found here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\mail\Include Reply Msg

1 - Include message in reply
0 - Do not include message in reply

This tip was written for Windows Live Mail Version 2009 running on a netbook with Windows XP Home. Features, instructions, and screenshots for other versions / operating systems may vary.