Summary:
- Windows Live Mail stores and exports Email and News messages on a pc in a viewable text file format.
- Email messages use the file type extension ‘eml’; News messages use ‘nws’
- Both Email and News messages use a hyphenated numerical/hexadecimal format as the filename
- Two examples for Mail are 00294823-00000147.eml and 26A6701F-00000002.eml
- Two examples for News are 0FDD08FE-0003DBFF.nws or 63F86350-0003DB89.nws
- Neither of the above filenames by default show the message’s ‘Subject’ or ‘Title’ field when viewed in Windows Explorer
Recommendation:
- If using Windows Windows 10, 8.x or Windows 7, the ‘Subject’ field can be enabled in Windows File Explorer (aka Windows Explorer in Windows 7)
Instructions:
- To add the ‘Subject’ (or ‘Title’ field via the Windows File Explorer menu)
- Open File Explorer (aka Windows Explorer)
- Navigate to the Windows Live Mail email account folder or the location of the exported message folder
- The default location for your mail and news folders/subfolders in Windows Live Mail is:
- C:\Users\<your Windows logon id>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\<your email or newsgroup account name>
- The location for exported messages willl be the same folder/subfolder location where the messages were exported (or dragged from Windows Live Mail to another user desired location – e.g. Desktop, user created folder, etc.)
- Click on ‘View’ on the Explorer menu or press Alt V
- Scroll and select ‘Choose Details’
- Scroll and select ‘Subject’ and/or ‘Title’ (see Note below for additional available fields)
- Click ‘Ok’
Note:
- Applicable to all released versions of Windows Live Mail (2012, 2011, 2009, 2008)
- Other fields in addition to ‘Subject’ are available (e.g. To Address, From Address etc) when configuring the ‘Choose Details’ option in Windows File Explorer
- Method is applicable for use when a supported version of Windows Live Mail is installed on Windows 10, 8x, 7, and Vista
Revisions:
Dec 8, 2015: Original Draft Date
January 6, 2015 : Original Publish Date
March 15, 2015: Added note on applicability for Windows versions – 10, 8x, 7, and Vista
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