Pasword Protection?

Is there any way to password protect Windows Live Mail (WLM)? I'm using
Windows 7 and Firefox 3.5. I have WLM in my startup folder, so it starts
every time my computer boots up or restarts. Be happy to change that, if
password protecting would preclude that. Thanks for any suggestions. If
you'd like to copy me directly to my e-mail, please just remove the *nospam
from the e-mail address you see here. Thanks!

Dan Kap,
Whittier, CA

On Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:04:55 -0800, Dan Kap wrote:

> Is there any way to password protect Windows Live Mail (WLM)? I'm using
> Windows 7 and Firefox 3.5. I have WLM in my startup folder, so it starts
> every time my computer boots up or restarts. Be happy to change that, if
> password protecting would preclude that. Thanks for any suggestions. If
> you'd like to copy me directly to my e-mail, please just remove the *nospam
> from the e-mail address you see here. Thanks!

No. Windows Live Mail does not understand the concept of password security.
The only way to secure your Windows Live Mail account is to log out of your
Windows 7 user account. If you are sharing your computer with other users,
set up a different account for those users (preferably one per user), and
put a password on the user accounts. When you log out of your user account,
then the other users can't access your user data.

Do not mention MS Outlook Express in this context. MSOE did not secure user
data against prying eyes. Whomever had console access to the file system,
had access to your MSOE files. Windows NT based systems, only, have a user
access control on the file system; easily implemented by setting up
separate, password protected limited user accounts. Such was never possible
with the Windows 9x systems (including Windows ME).

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

There is no real way of password protecting WLM.
The way to do it is to have everyone that uses your computer sign in to
Windows with their own account. Don't use one account for everyone.
All the mail, settings etc. are stored under your own User folder so if
someone else signs into your computer, they get their own mail and settings.

Colin Brown
WL MVP

"Dan Kap" <*> wrote in message
news:0D24D28B-518B-48FB-8EB8-...
> Is there any way to password protect Windows Live Mail (WLM)? I'm using
> Windows 7 and Firefox 3.5. I have WLM in my startup folder, so it starts
> every time my computer boots up or restarts. Be happy to change that, if
> password protecting would preclude that. Thanks for any suggestions. If
> you'd like to copy me directly to my e-mail, please just remove the
> *nospam from the e-mail address you see here. Thanks!
>
> Dan Kap,
> Whittier, CA

Thanks for the interesting and very comprehensive answer, Norman! Not only
did it answer my question, but it was interesting to read the history you
provided, especially with respect to MSOE; used that immediately prior to
Windows Live Mail which I like far better.

Dan

Thanks for the reply, Colin. I'll definitely create some specific user
accounts which will solve the problem. Being able to password protect WLM
would be far simpler though, and it kinda surprises me that WLM doesn't as
yet provide that feature. My guess is that not that many have asked for it.

Dan

Microsoft discontinued the password 'protection' for its free email
clients beginning with Windows Mail. It offers no real protection
or privacy since messages are plain text files that can be opened in
Notepad. If I have access to your computer's Windows profile, I
don't need Windows Live Mail running in order to read your
already downloaded messages. If there was an email client password,
it would not protect your private non-mail documents and pictures.
To get real privacy you need to use your own Windows user login,
and log out (Winkey+L) when done using the computer.

--
Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/def...le/vandermolen


"Dan Kap" <*> wrote in message news:18093D86-E1E6-4B7E-B5C9-...
> Thanks for the reply, Colin. I'll definitely create some specific user
> accounts which will solve the problem. Being able to password protect WLM
> would be far simpler though, and it kinda surprises me that WLM doesn't as
> yet provide that feature. My guess is that not that many have asked for it.
>
> Dan
>

On Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:03:37 -0800, Dan Kap wrote:

> Thanks for the reply, Colin. I'll definitely create some specific user
> accounts which will solve the problem. Being able to password protect WLM
> would be far simpler though, and it kinda surprises me that WLM doesn't as
> yet provide that feature. My guess is that not that many have asked for it.

The problem with password protection at the application level is that it
doesn't really work. You need file level access permissions, and those are
global to a user account. Such that all users sharing a common login have
common file access permission.

MS Outlook Express, which had password protected Identities is an example.
You could prevent access to an Identity, but you could not prevent access at
the file level. If you locked me out of your MSOE Identity, I could find you
MSOE Identity message store on the file system. As a user on the same
account level, I would have the same access permissions to those files, and
could, thus, import your message store into my MSOE Identity.

Windows 95, 98, 98SE, and Me did not have user level file access
permissions. Whomever had access to the console, effectively had "root"
access (to use a Unix term) to the file system. If your goal is to prevent
me from gaining access to your data, then you need an operating system which
enforces user level access permissions; those operating systems listed above
are incapable of it, and MSOE only uses the access permissions of the
underlying OS.

Windows NT, and its successors (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and
Windows 7) have user level access permissions, but they are enforced at the
user account level, not the application level. So, under Windows XP (and
earlier), which could run MS Outlook Express, if all users logged in under a
single, common user account, they all had the same user level access to the
MSOE message store; exactly the same situation as the Windows 9x operating
systems. The only way to enforce user level access control is by creating
specific, password protected user accounts (only possible for the Windows NT
family), and log out of the user account.

I do not know of an email client which can enforce user level access
control, unless it is a client accessing as server, where the server
enforces user level access control. But then you are in a different
circumstance, where the data is not kept on the local file system.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum