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WinMail.exe for Windows Server 2016?

We've long used WinMail.exe on a Windows server 2008 to process outgoing emails from an app hosted on that machine. The beauty of WinMail.exe is that it runs as a service, or more precisely, it doesn't have to be actually OPEN and running on the server all the time.

We're now migrating to Windows Server 2016, and do not see any references to WinMail.exe there. Can someone suggest an alternative? Mozilla Thunderbird has been recommended to us, but we're not sure if it can run in the background.

Thoughts?

Cliff Galiher

For services, IIS has long had an SMTP service for these kinds of uses. Using consumer apps is bad practice. That includes winmail and thunderbird.

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ASKER

Thanks, Cliff... but we need more than just the SMTP service... we need an Inbox and Sent Items as well, and I may be uninformed, but I don't believe deploying SMTP would provide those features.

Windows Mail fit that bill perfectly. AND it ran in the background. Can you, or someone else, recommend such an app?

Cliff Galiher

.process outgoing emails from an app hosted on that machine.

Changing the nature of your question will obviously change the answers you get back.

With that said, any app that processes data in sent items and inbox likely has specific APIs it needs, as there aren't standards for such things, unlike SMTP. You'll probably need to refer to the app manufacturer.

Michael B. Smith

Without commenting on whether you should or shouldn't... Find a Windows 10 computer where Windows Mail is installed. Take ownership of "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" (which is hidden) and give yourself read permissions. Copy the Windows Mail app to Windows Server 2016. Install Windows Mail using Add-AppxPackage.

This is, of course, unsupported. But I've used it to move a couple Windows Store apps to Server 2016 in my lab.

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ASKER

Thanks, Michael, for your suggestion. We'll check that out. And thanks for the preface regarding whether we should or shouldn't... USUALLY we've already considered those kinds of things, but we try not to be offended when someone is simply trying to offer good advice.

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