Windows 7 does not ship by default with an email client such as Windows Mail or Outlook Express. There are many good reasons why this is the case and the circumstances surrounding this are well and truly outside of the realm of this website to comment on or clarify. The lack of an existing email client allows the end user freedom of choice, if you are like us and have been very satisfied with the Microsoft email clients over the years your first objective might be to download and install Microsofts latest offerings.

Downloading Windows Live Mail from the internet is an easy task well within the realm of most computer users and it is freely available from the Windows Live website, along with a collection of other really great software such as Messenger, Photo Gallery, Silverlight and more.

Microsoft, Windows Live, Windows, Silverlight, the Windows Live website and many of the things mentioned in this tutorial are Registered Trademarks and copyrighted material owned by Microsoft. The links and information supplied in this tutorial are accurate at the time of writing and we shall endevour to update them as things change.

Connect to the internet with whatever method you use, open up Internet Explorer and navigate your way to http://download.live.com. Microsoft have endevoured to make the Windows Live download site as easy to use as possible. All of the programs available are completely free to download and use. Some of them are very cool. Locate the Download button on the right hand side of the site near the top and click on it.

You will then be prompted by a dialogue box asking you if you want to run or save the file. Click on the run button.

You computer will download the installer program and the length of time it takes will depend on the speed of your internet connection. You may be prompted by your computer as to whether you trust the program and want it to run. Click yes to this.

The installer program will run and examine your operating system and configure itself accordingly. Many of the programs available will run on earlier versions of Windows as well.

When the installer is ready it will prompt you to Choose the programs you wish to install. To achieve our current goal you should select Mail as the barest minimum however there are quite a few other good programs you may wish to install while we are here and there is absolutely no harm at all in selecting others as well, although it will result in a longer download time and more data usage on your internet connection. Click the Install button when you have chosen the programs you would like to install.