"will" ...
Mcafee and i'm using windows vista if that helps. it's all new to me.
McAfee is almost certainly to be your problem
if you have configured your system correctly.
You need to uninstall it entirely, it is incompatible with Vista
and only on your computer because the vendor has been bribed
to install it rather than have you use a tried and tested free alternative
such as...
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
Having uninstalled it completely, delete and recreate your
email account within Windows mail to eradicate the corruption.
Then install Avast and omit the email scanning component
as it is superfluous. See here...
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3
That should fix your problem.
Check the archive and you will find dozens of examples
of users whose WM problems have been solved by nothing other
than dumping McAfee.
Any problems... get back to this forum and post any
error messages and codes.