The error message typically specifies error number 0x800CCC0B
In this error, your e-mail account can't log-on (or can't send). This is caused by your e-mail service provider, which has made changes to its server settings without your consent. As a result, users of older e-mail programs such as Windows Live Mail (WLM) can no longer log-on (or can no longer send messages).
To find out whether this is the error you are experiencing, open your e-mail account on the e-mail provider's website, in a web browser. Look at the settings for POP and IMAP. There are two things you might need to deal with:
1. If the website's POP/IMAP settings now specify a different server address to the one you use in WLM, change the server address in WLM to match the new address mentioned on the website.
To check or alter the settings used by WLM: in WLM's left-hand folders pane, right-click on the E-mail Account's name; then click on the 'Properties' option; then click on the 'Advanced' tab. Ask here if you need further help.
2. If the website's POP/IMAP settings now specify TLS and/or STARTTLS as the encryption method, those protocols have been substituted for the original SSL protocol. Your account has changed from using SSL security to using the newer encryption method "TLS" or "STARTTLS".
The following fix involves editing the Windows Registry.
Windows 7 received an update in 2016 (known as KB3140245) which adds TLS 1.2 support, but it is not enabled by default, so it requires the user to make a small change in the Windows registry. WLM's account settings only refer to SSL, but it will use TLS if it's available, i.e. if that registry change is made.
Update number KB3140245 is almost certainly installed on your system already. It doesn't by itself solve your problem: you need to also enable TLS 1.1 and 1.2 by making the registry change I describe below.
If you don't already have it, update KB3140245 (“Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems") is available for download from the Microsoft Update Catalog for Windows 7 systems:
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/search.aspx?q=kb3140245
To install this update, you must have the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 installed. You must edit the Windows registry to add the "DefaultSecureProtocols" key.
To do this automatically, click here:
In the "File Download" dialog box that opens, click "Run" or "Open", then follow the steps shown in the "Easy Fix" wizard that opens. That wizard creates a Restore Point, so that if you need to reverse the changes you can do a System Restore.
To do the registry edit manually, open the Windows Registry editor, and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols
If the TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 subkeys are missing (i.e. if the "Protocols" key only has a single subkey named "SSL 2.0"), you need to create them manually. Here's how to do so:
- Right-click on "Protocols". Select "New", then "Key". Name the new key "TLS 1.1" (without the inverted commas).
- Right-click on that new key, then create another key underneath it named "Client" (without the inverted commas).
- Right-click on the new "Client" key. Select "New", then "DWORD (32bit) Value". Name the new item "DisabledByDefault" (without the inverted commas). By default, its value is zero (which is what you need, so leave it as that).
- Right-click on "Protocols". Select "New", then "Key". Name the new key "TLS 1.2" (without the inverted commas).
- Right-click on that new key, then create another key underneath it named "Client" (without the inverted commas).
- Right-click on the new "Client" key. Select "New", then "DWORD (32bit) Value". Name the new item "DisabledByDefault" (without the inverted commas). By default, its value is zero (which is what you need, so leave it as that).
Here is a link to an image which shows what the fixed registry should now look like: