Windows Live Mail - Change Where Messages are Stored

SUMMARY: Change where messages downloaded via Windows Live Mail are stored on your computer.

Windows Live Mail by default places its message store (where e-mail, RSS feed entries, calendars, and other items are downloaded / located) in the "Microsoft\Windows Live Mail" folder underneath the current user's Application Data folder. For example, for Windows XP this folder would be:

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\

Replace %USERPROFILE% with C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME, with USER_NAME being your Windows user name.

If you would like to move this information to another hard drive or partition, do the following:

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. The "Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Select the "Advanced" tab.

4. Underneath "Maintenance and Troubleshooting" click the "Maintenance" button.

5. The "Maintenance" dialog box appears. Click the "Store Folder" button.

6. The "Store Location" dialog box appears. Click the "Change" button.

7. Navigate your computer to where you want the store to be located. You can create a new folder if desired.

8. Click "OK" and/or "Close" on the dialog boxes to close them, noting that the message store will not be changed until you restart Windows Live Mail.

Note that Windows Live Mail will copy the current message store to its new location, leaving the old data intact for backup purposes.

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

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Store Root

This entry stores the folder location.

Press the "print" button on your browser or select "File" - "Print" to print this tip. Then, return to Windows Live Mail - Change Where Messages are Stored