Let’s face it, most of us own more than one email account and it is a hassle to keep track of all of them.

Not any more.

Windows Live Mail which is the successor to Windows Mail in Windows Vista and Outlook Express on Windows XP, allows you to access your multiple email accounts in one place, so you don't have to open many windows and log in to different accounts just to send and receive mail.

It offers similar features and some cool new ones too like integration with Windows Live services including Windows Live Spaces, Live Contacts, and even doubles as an RSS feed reader.

Unlike Hotmail, which is web-based and is accessible anywhere as long as you have Internet connection, Windows Live Mail is an email programme that you install on your PC.

It has a clean, easy-to-use interface where you can drag, drop and organise your emails.

It operates with Hotmail as well as most web-based and ISP email, all that's required is for the email provider to offer POP or IMAP access.

I installed Windows Live Mail from www.get.live.com on my laptop and proceeded to add my Hotmail and Yahoo! email accounts.

Only my email address and password were required for Hotmail while Yahoo! needed additional details like server information to get onboard. Just log in to your account, go to Options, select POP Access and Forwarding and follow the instructions. Easy peasy.

Storage space limit is dependent on the individual email service provider.

Windows Live Mail also has a neat feature called Quick Views that allows you to view mail from all your different accounts in one location, rather than having to switch between folders in your folder list. You can have “unread emails”, “all feeds”, “all drafts”, just to name a few.

This was especially useful when I was checking my email at a café and suddenly lost my wireless connection. It didn’t bother me as I had already downloaded all my emails to my “unread emails” folder. I just took my time to read, reply, and sent the entire batch out when I was done.

Emailing photos is no longer a problem with Windows Live Mail’s photo email.

Add photos to your email just like you would any other attachment but instead of large files, only thumbnails are sent. You can even add captions and frames to your photos.

Recipients receive smaller messages but view your photos in an online slideshow and download the high-resolution photos that they want.

Said Steven Birkhold, group manager for Windows consumer market, “Because they are not attached, you don’t have the image file but what you can do is go up to Play Slideshow, this takes you to Windows Live Spaces that is essentially sort of a holding space for the images that are associated with that email, and the full file sizes are up here. And so you can view them as a slideshow online or you can also download the pictures from here.

“So not only can you use mail to share the photos without attachments, which is great thing especially if you are not in the broadband situation, but you can actually share the image files themselves if people want them.”