I have just discovered that windows Vista has a series of nested Application data folders inside itself(Appdata(appdata(etc))) When I examined the last folder it had microsoft Windows mail folder with all my emails from my thunderbird account. thousands of them even those that I had deleted ages ago. It seems that Windows Mail keeps a copy of other systems emails and stores them. Check it out keep going through the Application Data folder to the end and you'll find your emails in windows mail. Unless I'm the only one. I have never used windows mail, and certainly not in the last couple of years Always used thunderbird on this machione Phil