On April 22 I had an email from MSN that said OE ( which I have used successfully for mant years) is being discontinued on June 30. It said :-
We encourage you to download Windows Live Mail at Windows Live Mail (http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview)
Unfortunately I have had some bad experiences with past Microsofts' "improvements/upgrades" until they have been running for a bit & the bugs have been ironed out.
Has anyone got comments/recommendatios/advice/proved successful alternatives please ?

I did hear about this... I'm not sure if this applies to Outlook, but if you're interested, I suggest just switching over to outlook.

Outlook Express is being discontinued, it's not being broken. Your Outlook Express will still work fine.

Windows98 is discontinued... but I can still install it on a computer if I want. I just have to find all the updates myself somewhere since MS won't provide them anymore.

SHORT - your OE is going to keep working just fine.

Outlook Express is not being "discontinued" its being "sunsetted". Sunsetting is when an older version of software will no longer be supported or enhanced. Outlook Express will continue to work but there will be no new improvements nor will MS Provide support for it.

OE was replaced in Vista with Windows Mail. Windows Live Mail which is an enhanced version of Windows Mail, has been around for a while and is very stable.

Thanks to all who answered my question.
I have decided to keep Outlook Express as suggested - it has worked OK for years although I sometimes have problems with sending Yahoo emails from it. It receives Yahoo OK & sends & receives emails from my orher 2 email addresses.

OE has been an under developed joke for years as all of the development effort went towards the corporate Outlook client.

Now where to go from here.
To get the best from ALL of your mail accounts and not simply the Micrp$oft affiliate ones, you really need an independent client.

Personal preference says go get Mozilla's Thunderbird client: Thunderbird - Reclaim your inbox (http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/)

Fast and free..