Change how often Windows Live Mail checks for new emails on the server

Once you have added an email account inside Windows Live Mail, it will periodically check on the mail server for new email messages; how often it checks for new emails is something you can configure in the Options. In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the interval that elapses between two checks for new messages; the next tutorial explains how you can even prevent Windows Live Mail from (automatically) checking the server for new emails.

Change the new-email-check interval in Windows Live Mail

Follow these steps to customize how often you automatically check for emails on the server:

• Open Windows Live Mail, if needed, and click on the "Menu" button (or press the equivalent Alt+M keyboard shortcut).
  
  
• Then, click on "Options" and Windows Live Mail will open its settings.
• The "General" tab should be automatically selected (if not, click on it).
• Look at the "Send / Receive Messages" options near the middle; they include a checkbox labeled "Check for new messages every [x] minute(s)", which shows a counter text field on the same line. This counter has a default value of "30", meaning that Windows Live Mail will by default check for new emails on the server every half-hour.
  
  
• You can either manually type a number of minutes you want to elapse before Windows Live Mail checks for new emails, or use the up and down arrow buttons as shown on the screenshot above. The maximum value is "999" minutes (16 hours & 39 minutes).
• Once you are satisfied with your number of minutes, click on the "OK" button to apply the new setting and return to Windows Live Mail. From this point on, Windows Live Mail will automatically check for new emails at this interval.

Tip: you can at any time check for new emails manually, by clicking on the "Sync" button (which stands for "synchronize"), as shown on the screenshot below:


The next automatic check for new messages will occur the number of minutes you have specified after the last check (whether automatic or manual).