Below are step by step instructions on how to setup Windows Live Mail to be the ultimate Gmail IMAP client.

There are 15 steps in total and shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to complete.

Using these settings in Windows Live Mail (WLM) will give you an amazing IMAP configuration that’s fast, reliable and easy to use.

Windows live mail is free and can be downloaded here.

Once you have installed the programme and run it for the first time work through this setup list in order:

Step 1. In the top right corner of the application you will see an icon of a small arrow on a white and blue drop down menu. Click it and then select the bottom option, ‘Show Menu Bar’

Step 2. In the top menu click View > Layout. A nice view to work with is:

Reading Pane: Show the reading pane; to the right of the message list
Message List: One-Line view
Folder Pane: Only check the Use Companct Shortcuts option
Message header (Mail): Check the show message header box

Click Apply then OK.

Step 3. In the top menu click Tools > Options. Now work through the various tabs:

General & Read
All of the options here are just down to your own preferences and won’t effect your IMAP experience.

Receipts
Under the ‘Returning Read Receipts’ section, check ‘Never send a read receipt’.

Send
MAKE SURE you UNCHECK the ‘Save copy of sent messages in the’ Sent Items’ folder’. Gmail automatically saves a copy of sent mail anyway meaning you end up with 2 copies if you leave this checked.

Compose
Click Font Settings and pick your font, font style and font size of choice.

Signatures
If you would like to use a signature then click New and then click Rename then enter a name for your signature. Check the ‘add signatures to all outgoing messages’ box at the top and leave the ‘Don’t add signatures to Replies and Forwards’ checked.

Either enter some text for your signature or check the File button and the browse your local machine and select your signature file if you have prepared one.

Spelling
Choose your language and click ‘Set Default’

Connection & Advanced
The default settings are fine on both

Step 4. Now we need to configure Gmail. Login to your Gmail account online.

Once you are logged in go to Settings > Labs and then click enable beside Advanced IMAP Controls.

Step 5. Now jump to the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab.

Alongside IMAP Access click the enable IMAP option.

Step 6. Jump to the ‘Labels’ tab.

In the System labels section make sure the following boxes are unchecked: All Mail, Spam and Trash.

Step 7. Now you can set up your account in WLM. Go to Tools > Accounts > Add.

On the next screen choose Email Account.

Step 8. Enter your email address, password and display name and then check the manually configure box.

Step 9. Select IMAP as your incoming server, type imap.gmail.com into the incoming server box and then check ‘This server requires a secure conneciton’ box.

The incoming port should default to 993. If it doesn’t then set this manually.

Log on using clear authentication. Your Login ID is your full email address rather than just the part before the @ which will appear by default in the box.

Enter smpt.gmail.com into the outgoing server box and check both boxes underneath; ‘This server requires a secure conneciton’ and ‘My outgoing server requires authentication’.

Now change the outgoing port to 587. Click Next

Step 10. You will get a message saying you have successfully entered your account information and you will see your new account in the accouns window. Click Close

Step 11. Your IMAP folder list will be automatically downloaded and you will see them appear in the Show/Hide IMAP Folders window which appears. Click OK.#

Step 12. Right click on your account name which will have appeared in the left hand side of the screen and then choose properties from the menu. If you prefer you can access the same details by going to Tools > Accounts > Select the account you created > Click Properties.

Click on the IMAP tab at the very right and enter the following information:

The root folder path is: [Gmail] including the square brackets
Check the box for ‘Check for new messages in all folders’
Check the box for ‘Store special folders on IMAP server’
The Sent Items path is: Sent Mail
The Drafts path is: Drafts
The Deleted Items path is: Deleted Items
The Junk Path is: Spam

Click Apply and then OK.

Step 13. You will see a message telling you that your account has changed and would you like to update the folders list. Click yes.

Step 14. You will now see your Gmail ‘labels’ listed underneath your account on the left hand side without being contained in a [Gmail] drop down menu. If for any reason your list of labels  is not as you expected it to be then right click on your account name on the left of the screen, choose IMAP Folders and then click the Reset List button in the window which appears.

Step 15. If you want to add additional columns into the message pane area, such as email size which doesn’t appear in the default column view then simply right click on the columns bar and choose Columns from the menu which appears.

You can then decide which columns you want to keep or appear by checking and unchecking the relevant boxes and rearrange the order using the move up and down buttons.

And you’re done!

When you first go into your deleted items or sent mail folders there will be a lot of mail to download if you’ve been using your account for a while. WLM will only download the message headers for you though and not the attachements so it won’t take long.

If you want to add new folders for storing and organising your mail then just right click on your account name on the left of the screen and choose New Folder from the menu which appears.

Enter a name for your new folder and click ok. You might need to update your folder list to force the new folder to appear. The effect this will have in your actual gmail account will be to create a new label and any mail you place into that folder on your client will be tagged with that label in your Gmail account.

Adding a flag to a message in Windows Live Mail will add a star to it in your gmail account.

How do you find Windows Live Mail compared to Thunderbird and Outlook?