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Frequently Asked Questions
Further Information

How to Receive Email

By default, Windows Live Mail will check for new messages when it starts up, and then every 30 minutes. If this interval is too long, you can change the setting by clicking the ">>" button which shows more toolbar options, and then selecting "Send/receive" followed by "Send and receive all", which will force Windows Live Mail to check for new incoming messages and send any outgoing messages.

Alternatively, by clicking on the button, selecting "Options...", and then selecting the "General" tab, you can modify the "Check for new messages every ?? minutes" entry to whatever value you desire. Remember though that checking for new email requires some resources on your computer, so doing this frequently may slow down other tasks.

Whichever method you choose, the new email will appear in your inbox. It will show in bold font, to indicate that it hasn't been read yet. After you've read it, it will be displayed in normal font.

If you select a new message with a single click, it shows up in the reading pane at the bottom of the screen.

Since the address it was sent from is not in the contact list, you get a warning at the top that the message is from an unknown sender, and the option to delete it and block further messages from this sender, or to allow future messages from this sender (so that future messages won't display this warning). Just underneath this, you also get the option to add the address the email came from to your list of contacts.

If you double-click on the message, it opens fully in a separate window.

Whether you open a message fully or just display it in the reading pane, there are buttons which allow you to "Reply" (in which case your reply goes just to the person who sent you the message), "Reply all" (in which case your reply goes to all of the people on the "To" and "Cc" lists in the message, but not to those who were on the "Bcc" list because you have no way of knowing who they were) and "Forward" (which allows you to pass the message on to others). A common mistake which you should be careful to avoid is to accidentally hit "Reply all" instead of "Reply", which means that your response may go to a much wider audience than you intended.

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