Windows Live Mail pushed to Windows Phone

Ed Hansberry, Window Mobile MVP and Editor on Pocket PC Thoughts & InformationWeek, has written a short article: “Windows Live Mail Pushed To Your Device” in which he refers to a tutorial from Derrick Buckner how to set-up and configure this push-functionality with the free Windows Live Mail service.

This article will build further up-on the tutorial of Derrick Bruckner and explore this push functionality both on Windows Mobile Professional and Windows Mobile Standard, and make a short comparrison with a Microsoft (Hosted) Exchange account.

Configuration and set-up

The first step in getting Windows Live Mail pushed to your Windows Phone is downloading the latest version of the Windows Live for Windows Mobile, and choose the according cab-file for either Windows Mobile Professional or Windows Mobile Standard.

Second transfer the cab-file to your Windows Mobile device, and install Windows Live by double “clicking” on the cab-file with the File Explorer. Sign-in to Windows Live with your Windows Live ID, and I would recommend to uncheck the option “store Windows Live contacts in you mobile phone’s contact list” in step four of the sign-in-process. Complete the sign-in process, and you are ready to set-up the push-mail for Windows Live Mail.

Open Windows Live on your Windows Phone, and open the “Menu” with the right soft key / hardware button and select menu item -1- “ Options” as shown in the two screenshots above.

Select menu item -3- “Sync Schedule” within the just openend “Account Options” menu, and choose the option “As items arrive” as Sync frequency. This is the whole push-mail configuration to get Windows Live Mail pushed to your Windows Phone, but how does it work in practice. Time for a test e-mail …

Two short tests

The screenshot shows the first test e-mail I have sent to the “test-user” having the sync frequency set to “Every 15 minutes” and the result is a no-brainer. Within the polling interval of 15 minutes the first test-e-mail arrived in the Windows Live Mail inbox.

The second test e-mail  I have sent to the “test user” was under the push-configuration as outlined in the tutorial above. Directly after I hit the sent button in Microsoft Outlook 2007 on my desktop and saw the test e-mail leaving the Outbox, the e-mail arrived within a split second both in my Windows Live Mail inbox and on my HTC Snap.

A comparison with Microsoft (Hosted) Exchange

Some of you might remember that Exchange Active Sync and Exchange Direct Push Technology were introduced back in October 2005 as Mobility Features in Exchange Server 2003 SP2 as you can read in the according Microsoft TechNet article.

Quite interesting that I’m using this feature for about 4 years now, never stood still with that. With that in mind I’m really looking forward to the new updates for Windows Mobile in Exchange 2010, of which this week a release candidate has become available for download.

I will start with the precondition that I have signed up for a Hosted Exchange account with Sherweb, and I really enjoy have my information stored in one central place. I can access this information via my Lenovo X60 tablet, the HP Mini 1000 netbook, Outlook Web Access and my HTC Snap. The screenshots below show the according configuration screens within Active Sync on my HTC Snap.

In the right screenshot you can see that the HTC snap is setup to connect with the Microsoft (Hosted) Exchange server as well as my Lenovo X60 tablet (Windows PC). If I open the “Menu” by hitting the according hardware button, you probably notice menu-item -2- “Schedule“.

In the “Schedule” screen I can set the Sync frequency for both peak times and off-peak times, in the screenshot above both set for “As items arrive“. Configuration wise there are a great deal of similarities between enabling the push-feature in Windows Live and Microsoft Exchange Active Sync, and probably there are even overlaps in the underlying technology driving these services.

Let me conclude that the push-mail experience both on Microsoft Exchange and Windows Live Mail are comperable. Within a split second that the e-mail arrives in the folder “Inbox” it is pushed to your Windows Phone as well. However Microsoft Exchange server also syncs my calender, contacts and tasks in addition to simply doing e-mail. Unfortunately synchronization of notes is still not supported and therefore I personally use Evernote, because of their multi-platform approach.

You might remember the article: “MWC 2009: Microsoft MyPhone – A new backup restore service for Windows Phones” In addition to Windows Live, this free service gives you the possibility to manage your Windows Phone and back-up and restore even your SMS Messages, and Pictures.

One of the commenters in the tutorial from Derrick Buckner advises:

“Another great tip to go with this is to use a program like Sianix Calendar Sync to sync your Windows Live Calendar with Pocket Outlook.”

Concluding thoughts and wrap up

While I personally still prefer a Microsoft (Hosted) Exchange  account with Sherweb, I can imagine that there are people who don’t want to pay a monthly fee for having their e-mail pushed to their Windows Phone.

The tutorial from Derrick Buckner and our own tests proove that it’s easy to configure and experience a free Exchange-Direct-Push-like user-experience with Windows Live Mail both for Windows Mobile Professional and Windows Mobile Standard.

But I would like to take it even one step further. Combining this e-mail push on Windows Live Mail, with a set of additional free tools like Microsoft MyPhone, Evernote and the proposed Sianix Calendar Sync, users are able to gain an almost-complete Microsoft Exchange experience for free.

Finally special thanks to Ed Hansberry, Window Mobile MVP and Editor on Pocket PC Thoughts & InformationWeek, for answering a short question as a result of his article, and give Derrick Buckner the main amount of credit for writing the tutorial on his website !

UPDATE:

Darren Humphries, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor on Mobile Jaw, has used the article above to set up Push Mail for his Windows Live Mail. In the article “How To: Push Email for Windows Mobile” he has done some good research and troubleshooting, while he concludes:

“On my Samsung Omnia I’m using a couple different IM clients; Fring and Palringo. At the time of my testing I had Palringo running and had it logged into my Live messenger account. The long and short is that it seems you can’t have a 3rd party IM app running on your phone at the same time as trying to receive push email. If you use the Windows Live Messenger that comes with Windows Mobile you should be fine, but push doesn’t like those 3rd party ones. You can still use 3rd party IM apps for services other than Live Messenger, just delete the Messenger profile and use the built-in Windows Mobile mesenger.”