Windows Live Mail - I tried it (until it crashed) ... also an unsuccessful Service Pack install

Though my main operating system is Debian GNU/Linux, I do maintain a Windows 7 partition on my newish Lenovo G555 laptop not only to watch Silverlight-dependent Netflix video but to test things in Windows for the purpose of writing posts such as these.

A huge Windows 7 update has been installing in this very same laptop over the course of three days.

The first day I stopped it manually because I had other things to do than wait hours for the download and install and shutdown (they don't even let you shut down in a timely manner, that Microsoft).

But yesterday I consented to have the Windows Live software install itself. It took a hell of a long time.

Never mind that the Windows 7 Service Pack installation has already failed twice.

Today I thought I'd give Windows Live the ol' college try, as they say. I decided to configure Windows Live Mail for one of my IMAP accounts.

The configuration itself was easy. After doing this dozens of times in all manner of e-mail clients, I'm past most of the pain in this regard.

So I got my information into Windows Live Mail, and I proceeded to bring the messages into the application via IMAP.

Sure enough, they all flowed in, and I started looking at them.

The interface looks good, has a lot of sophisticated animations (windows shrinking, fading, etc) that I'm not used to because I hardly ever use Windows 7 for anything but watching Netflix.

I even forwarded an e-mail. I'm not sure whether or not that operation succeeded, but it appeared to go well.

But after that I continued reading mail messages, and a few more emails into it, the window froze. No clicking of any kind elicits anything but a warning "bell" sound. I can't seem to kill it.

I can't even figure out in Windows 7 how I get to a screen where I can kill this.

What I can do is right-click on the Windows Live Mail icon and -- wait for it -- not kill the program but actually create and send an e-mail. I can't read an existing message, nor can I quit the program ...

I'm going to try the twice-failed Windows 7 update a third time, and then I'll do my level best to quit out of Windows and boot back into Debian Squeeze.

Minutes later: Shutting down Windows entirely had the effect of closing Windows Live Mail. I'll try again later (the mail client and the elusive Service Pack upgrade).

Now I'm back in the GNOME 2 world of Debian Squeeze.