Windows Live Mail Inbox

I installed Windows Live Mail and imported all my e-mail accounts. Now I have folders for every single account on the left hand side. How do I get rid of them or hide them? I want a make it look as close as possible to OE or Windows Mail so I want one Windows Live Mail inbox to collect all email. Thanks
Robert Bahna

The layout of Windows Live Mail, the default email program on Windows 7 computers, is somewhat different from Outlook Express (XP) and Windows Mail (Vista). For instance, instead of a single inbox, Windows Live Mail gives one to each email account that’s configured in the program. Now this may not be a big deal when you have only one email address. But in case of multiple accounts, the incoming messages are automatically sorted and placed in their own inboxes. This is one of the pet peeves of former users of Outlook Express and Windows Mail who have always worked from a single inbox… and pretty used it.

FYI, each email account set up in Windows Live Mail gets a set of five default folders – the Inbox, Drafts, Sent items, Junk e-mail and Deleted items. You can create more if you want.

Single inbox in Windows Live Mail

There are two methods of putting all incoming email in one Windows Live Mail inbox folder instead of several. The first is a little cumbersome but gets exactly what is desired. This is what will be detailed in this post – please follow the steps below.

• Start the email program – [Slide 1].
• Make sure the top menu is visible, else you need change the layout and unhide it. Refer how to get the Windows Live Mail toolbar – [Slides 2 and 3].
• The “Storage Folders” would probably be visible in the left panel, if not, click the “Menus” icon (Alt-M) and choose, “Layout” -> “Folder Pane“. Put a check mark in front of “Show Storage folders” and apply these changes – [Slides 4 and 5].
• You’ll now see the “Storage folders” on the left – [Slide 6].
• Right click on “Storage folers” and select “New folder” – [Slide 7].
• Enter a name for this new folder. It can be anything you want – [Slide 8 and 9].
• Now choose “Tools” -> “Message rules” -> “Mail” – [Slide 10].
• Select the “For all messages” condition and “Move it to the specified folder” action – [Slide 11].
• Click the blue colored “specified” link and pick the new folder you’ve added under the “Storage folders“. You can also provide a name for this message rule if you want. Click “OK“- [Slide 12 and 13].
• The new message rule is created. Close the pop-up by hitting “OK” – [Slide 14].

All incoming messages from all email accounts that have been set up in Windows Live Mail will now arrive at one ‘Inbox’, the one you’ve created under “Storage folders“.

The other way to collect email in one folder in Windows Live Mail is to add the “All Inbox” option under “Quick Views“; please click that link to know more. However, this method lets you check email from a single inbox and does not ‘move’ the messages per se.

Finally, the only way to hide (all) folders in Windows Live Mail is to deselect the option to show the left panel. Click the “Menus” icon (Alt-M) and select “Layout“. Under the “Folder pane” section, put a check mark in front of “Use compact view for Folder pane“. This will, however, not hide the left panel completely; the accounts will still be visible… but now only as icons. The same can be achieved by dragging the folder panel to the left edge.