Windows Vista introduced a replacement for Outlook Express called Windows Mail. Windows Mail allows you to send and receive messages from multiple email accounts after you configure each one. Windows Mail works with many different internet service providers (ISPs). Managing multiple email accounts is easy because each account in Windows Mail is organized in its own folder. You can check for messages from all your email accounts at once by clicking a single button.

When you first open Windows Mail it will start the new email account wizard and the first thing it will ask you for is your display name. This can be anything you want it to be and is what will show up on your outgoing messages. It is chosen by you and not your ISP.

Next you will enter the email address for your account. This must be setup in advance by your ISP otherwise you will not be able to check your email until you have a valid email address. 

Next you will have to setup the email servers used for your account. This information will vary depending on what type of servers your ISP uses. You will have to choose the correct server types for incoming and outgoing email and enter the specific information for those servers in the fields.

Windows Mail supports three types of email servers; POP3, SMTP and IMAP. You will need to know what type of server your email provider uses before setting up Windows Mail.

Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) servers are used by most ISPs. They hold incoming email messages until you check your email, at which point they're transferred to your computer. Messages are typically deleted from the server when you check your email.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) servers let you work with email messages without downloading them to your computer first. You can preview, delete, and organize messages directly on the email server. Copies are stored on the server until you delete them. IMAP is commonly used for business email accounts.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) servers handle the sending of your email messages to the Internet. An SMTP server handles only the outgoing email, and is used in conjunction with a POP3 or IMAP incoming email server.

Windows Mail does not support the HTTP servers used by Hotmail and other web based email services. 

Some ISPs require authentication for outgoing email so if that’s the case you can check the box that says Outgoing server requires authentication and fill in the required information. Many times you can check the box that says Use same settings as my incoming mail server and it will do the trick. 

Finally you will enter your email username and password. The username is usually the first part of your email address before the @ symbol. Some ISPs require the whole email address as your username. If you check the box that says Remember password then you wont have to enter it each time your check your email. 

After this step you will see a congratulations screen saying you have successfully setup Windows Mail and it will ask you if you want to download your mail now.

Windows Mail allows you to do more than send email. It also allows you to read newsgroups which are Internet discussion forums where groups of users with common interests gather to talk about things such as movies, games, politics and so on.