How do I stop windows mail from running

  • Thread starter Thread starter rozelf
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rozelf

I am trying to install an antivirus programme and I get a pop up saying that
it won't install whilst windows mail is running and that I should close it,
but I can't find where to do this.
 
rozelf said:
I am trying to install an antivirus programme and I get a pop up saying
that
it won't install whilst windows mail is running and that I should close
it,
but I can't find where to do this.
Click to expand...


Open Task Manager by right click on a blank area of the taskbar or by
Ctrl,Alt, Delete>if it shows on the application tab select it and use End
Task.

On the Processes tab look for any instances of WinMail.exe, select and end
process.
 
If you want to stop Windows Mail completely, go to Control Panel / Default
Programs / Set program access and computer defaults (bottom item on list).
Use the CUSTOM button and uncheck the boxes allowing allowing access to
Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail.

Good luck with Vista...
 
The Processes tab of the Task Manager should never be used to kill processes
except as a last resort. It is easy to tell people to do that, but it is not
the best advice without first attempting to solve a problem another way.
 
The Processes tab of the Task Manager should never be used to kill
processes except as a last resort. It is easy to tell people to do that,
but it is not the best advice without first attempting to solve a problem
another way.
Click to expand...

How would you close it Sam?

If the program itself, appears to be still running after it was closed
correctly by a user?

WinMail.exe continuing to run, is a common problem, especially where mail
store corruption is involved.

See the instructions for the following corruption repair Utility as an
example (red box).

http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/Default.aspx
 
That depends on which process you are killing.
If you kill a necessary system process or one that has many
dependencies, then yes, it could cause problems.
However, killing a standalone process like WinMail.exe is not
harmful.
 
Killing a process using the processes tab won't give the process the
opportunity to save any data that has not yet been saved. In the case of
WinMail, that could be configuration and other status information. The
application also cannot free up resources (including some system memory)
that could contribute to instability of the system. The problem will not
exist after the system is restarted but it is a potential problem until the
system is restarted.


That depends on which process you are killing.
If you kill a necessary system process or one that has many
dependencies, then yes, it could cause problems.
However, killing a standalone process like WinMail.exe is not
harmful.
 
mac said:
How would you close it Sam?

If the program itself, appears to be still running after it was closed
correctly by a user?

WinMail.exe continuing to run, is a common problem, especially where mail
store corruption is involved.

See the instructions for the following corruption repair Utility as an
example (red box).

http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/Default.aspx
Click to expand...


Microsoft should provide instructions for closing WinMail. Without that, I
would (temporarily) disable automatic execution of mail software. I have
Windows Mail in my startup folder. I have noticed that I also have WinMail
executing after I close WinMail, but I don't know why. I have not
investigated why. If I were to investigate, I would (if needed) use a
utility to determine if WinMail is started automatically in some other way.
The sysinternals site in Microsoft.com has a good utility for doing that.

I also do something else that everyone should do but most people don't. The
Windows account I use most of the time does not have Administrator
privileges. I use a different account that is an Administrator for
maintenance. The maintenance account does not use email so it does not
execute WinMail. I don't know if WinMail executes automatically for that
account but assuming it does not then use of that account for maintenance
can make the task of closing WinMail irrelevant.
 
I'm assuming that the program has been idle for some time,
so no pending writes are being interrupted. I agree it is not
an ideal situation, but sometimes one can't wait for a
Windows restart. If this (WinMail not exiting) is a frequent
occurrence, one should take some investigative action to find
and eliminate the cause.
 
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