DeltaSync still working in Windows Live Mail

At what comes at really no surprise, Windows Live Mail’s Hotmail/Outlook.com DeltaSync protocol that was supposedly being discontinued yesterday, is still working normally today.

As I don’t believe the software or servers for DeltaSync are a component of the new foundation of Outlook.com (Outlook Web Access), it’s not clear how long DeltaSync will end up staying around.

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Installing Windows Live Mail 2012 on Windows Vista

During the process of making Windows Live Messenger 2012 function on Vista earlier this year, I was also able to get Windows Live Mail 2012 working.

As Microsoft will not be patching Windows Live Mail 2011 to replace the DeltaSync protocol, you may find this helpful to install 2012 on Vista to avoid disruption if you’re using Live Mail.

Before you get started, you need to make sure you have all the requirements installed:

• Windows Vista Service Pack 2
• Windows Update KB971644 Platform Update (found in the optional updates section of Windows Update)
• .NET Framework 4.0
• Windows Live Mail 2011

If you do not already have Live Mail 2011 installed, I can supply installers of any supported language on request.  If there is sufficient demand, I may add Live Mail into Reviver for clean installs.

If you had to install any of the above required components, please restart Windows before starting the process.

If you use Windows Live Movie Maker 2011, it will not be able to export movies after the upgrade.

Finally, download and run Messenger Reviver 2 which will upgrade Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker to 2012 versions.

Download Messenger Reviver 2

When prompted, click the link to install Windows Live Messenger 2012.

This installation tends to take a while, due to the age of the computers running Vista and the overall slowness of the Windows Essentials installer.

Once installation is complete, Live Messenger will come up, just close it.

Next, you will want to install the Windows Live Mail 2012 KB3093594 patch that swaps DeltaSync support for Exchange ActiveSync.  Download and run the .msp file, then choose Repair when prompted.

After this is complete, click the Finish button and you can now start Windows Live Mail 2012!

Troubleshooting
Installing Essentials 2012 will force Windows to check updates, in which case svchost.exe may continue to consume CPU after installation and none of the Windows Live products will come up.  You can either wait it out or restart Windows.

 

The craziness of Windows Live Mail patch KB3093594

As mentioned previously, Microsoft has elected to discontinue the DeltaSync protocol of Windows Live Mail 2012 for Exchange ActiveSync.  This is to be done using a Microsoft Installer patch filed under KB3093594, Update for Windows Live Essentials Mail 2012.

However this patch doesn’t appear to have been fully tested nor is it made simple to install.

Windows 10 support
Most importantly, after installing this patch, Live Mail will no longer work on Windows 10.  Live Mail will open up, but within seconds it crashes with the standard, Windows Live Mail has stopped working.

This crash was repeatable on multiple machines of different bitness and Windows builds.  The actual exception is an access violation in wcsync.dll (which is one of the patched libraries).

If you want to go ahead and try to install the patch or if you already did, you can revert/uninstall the patch by pressing -R (Windows Key and R) on the keyboard, then copy/paste the following:

msiexec /package {B775C26B-EAA8-4A11-ACBF-76E52DF6B805} /uninstall {342DCD5D-5946-453B-97AC-D53B7662EDF5}

Then press enter or click OK.  When prompted, choose Repair.

Installation
Furthermore, even the installation of the patch (KB3093594) is simply awful.  After running the .msp (Microsoft Installer Patch file), you’re offered to either Repair or Remove Live Mail.  Choosing Repair is the only way to get it to install.

After installation, the version number of Windows Live Mail will change from 16.4.3528.0331 to 16.4.3563.0918.

Usage
Installing this patch does not add any new functionality to Windows Live Mail 2012.  The only difference is that the DeltaSync protocol been swapped out with the Exchange ActiveSync protocol.  Live Mail still only allows use of Outlook.com/Hotmail/POP3/IMAP email accounts, and you cannot use your own Office 365 or Exchange server account.  Additionally, push email support has not been restored, as Live Mail still uses Messenger to notify Live Mail for new messages.  Unfortunately, this particular feature in Messenger has been broken since April 2014.

As much as we can appreciate Microsoft continuing support for Live Mail, certainly it would have been better if they fully tested this on the latest Windows version, as well as made it easier to install or just utilized Windows Update to deploy the patch automatically.

 

Microsoft to discontinue DeltaSync (for Windows Live Mail)

A good friend of mine got the following email today:

Important information about your email service

Dear user,
In a few weeks, we will be making some changes to our email services that might impact your @outlook.com, @hotmail, @live, or @msn email account. Those changes will prevent your email from being delivered to the Windows Live Mail 2012 application you use.
In order to continue using Windows Live Mail 2012 to send and receive email for your account, you need to install the latest update published here.
If you use Windows Live Mail 2012 on Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, we recommend that you switch to the built in Mail app in Windows to stay connected and get the latest feature updates on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.
Windows Live Essentials 2009 and 2011 are not supported anymore, and you will need to update to Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10 and use the Mail app, or use www.outlook.com. To learn more about the Mail app, please click here.
We also recommend all Windows Live Mail users on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 and use the built in Mail application to stay connected and get the latest feature updates.
We suggest saving this email so you can refer to it later.
Thanks for your understanding and continued use.

Sincerely,
The Outlook team

Although not officially mentioned in the message, Windows Live Mail 2012 uses the DeltaSync protocol to send and receive email for Outlook.com/Hotmail accounts, so it can be assumed that they are discontinuing this protocol.  Prior to DeltaSync’s creation, Outlook Express used WebDAV, which itself was shut down in 2009.

With the patch linked in the email, KB3093594, Microsoft seems to have elected to continue to support Live Mail 2012 by replacing the DeltaSync protocol with Exchange ActiveSync.

However…
As much as I can tell, after installing this patch, Live Mail will no longer work on Windows 10.  Live Mail opens up, but within seconds it crashes:

Additionally, the Exchange ActiveSync support is extremely rudimentary and fixes none of the existing issues with mail notifications.

I’ve continued and elaborated my discoveries, as well as how to revert the patch on my next post.