Can One Erase Email in Win7 Windows Live?

[drach]

I have just downloaded Eraser (6.0.9.2343) for the first time, and I'm self-taught on the computer, so I'm no expert. How can I erase email deleted in Windows Live Mail? I don't see the file in Explorer and don't know what it would be called for a search. However, Windows periodically offers to compress files when I close the Live Mail program, which I always accept. Do they mean the deleted files, and does this make them unrecoverable--I hope?

 

[DavidHB]

Email programs store messages etc. in database files, so it is impossible to erase individual messages directly using a program such as Eraser. The best you can do with an email program is delete the messages in the normal way, then compact the email folders (as you are doing), and then erase the free space on the drive.

Just compacting the files makes the deleted messages non-recoverable for most users. Someone with reasonably good computing skills, the right recovery program and the time and access to your machine required might be able to recover some deleted emails under some circumstances. The Eraser free space erase makes that less likely, particularly if you compact your email store reasonably frequently.

David

 

[drach]

Thank you, DavidHB. That's just the simple solution I hoped for.

 

[eus]

Windows Live Mail stores emails in \Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail by default. You can safely delete any emails in this folder with Eraser. Besides you can choose in Windows Live Mail settings there to store the "message store"(all emails, accounts, logs), so you just simple change the path for the Windows Live Mail folder.

 

[drach]

Thank you, eus. This is very helpful.

 

[DavidHB]

I don't use Windows Live Mail, but, from my reading, it appears that, once users access the store location, they may find a bewildering array of files and folders (this is true of other email programs also). I would advise any user who finds this at all confusing not to erase individual files, but to use the facilities in the program for compacting the data store.

The last thing a user usually needs to do is to make the whole email store unusable. Of course, if all that is required is to destroy the whole store, then erasing the email folder is a very good means of doing this.

David