Windows Live Mail 2012 supports just about any email account you can think of: from standard POP and IMAP accounts, to proprietary-protocols like Microsoft's Exchange DeltaSync. Arguably, Windows Live Mail has even better support out-of-the-box than Office's own Microsoft Outlook (since Outlook requires addons to support Hotmail / Live.com / Outlook.com email addresses). This tutorial will show you how to setup standard POP3 and IMAP accounts.
Tip: the setup process is near completely automated for some of the most popular email providers. Here's how to configure these webmail services:
Setup AOL Mail • Setup Gmail • Setup Hotmail / Outlook.com • Setup Yahoo Mail
When you install Windows Live Mail, it obviously has no email account already setup: so when you first launch the program, you'll be greeted with the "new email account setup" dialog, which appears only once. But you can access at any time by clicking on the New email account button under the "Accounts" tab in the Ribbon: 
Tip: you can also add new email accounts and view the entire listing by going to the File > Options > Accounts" (the File button is in the top left corner).And when the Accounts dialog opens, you'll see every email address currently setup in Windows Live Mail. Just click on the "Add" button to create another.
Whether you are setting up a POP3 or IMAP account, the start of the process is exactly the same: start by entering your full email address (in the following form: username, the "@" symbol, and the provider's domain (or your own, if you are hosting the account).
Then, type your account password: note that it is nearly always case-sensitive.
If you leave the "Remember this password" checkbox checked, Windows Live Mail will never ask you for credentials for this account, unless the password has changed.
Finally, choose whether this email address should be the default sender, by optionally checking the "Make this my default email account" checkbox.
Check the "Manually configure server settings" checkbox, and click Next.
The variables to configure to connect Windows Live Mail to your account are the incoming server settings (receiving emails) are on the left, and outgoing server settings (sending mail) on the right: this information comes from your email provider. 
Windows Live Hotmail", cancel this dialog and see instead our "Add Hotmail / Outlook.com to Windows Live Mail" tutorial (Microsoft's webmail service uses DeltaSync).
110 (clear / unencrypted) or 995 (SSL-encrypted connection). Check the "Requires a secure connection (SSL)" if needed - don't just change the port number.Clear text" (default) in the "Authenticate using" dropdown is usually the correct configuration. But check with your provider if "
Secure Password Authentication" or "
Authenticated POP (APOP)" is required and/or supported.
@" symbol). The username is case-insensitive.
25, but many email and internet providers change that to another value to avoid seeing their server used as spam relay (most spambots will try the default outgoing port). Common alternatives are 2525 and 587.When you click on the Next button, Windows Live Mail will try to connect to your mail server with the information you just supplied: if it is successful, you'll get a "Your email account was added
" confirmation message. Click Finish - you are ready to go!
To rename your new email account, just right-click on it in the folder listing, and choose "Properties": type another, meaningful name, and hit Enter.
Caveat: for POP3 accounts, make sure to understand the “Leave messages on server” option, so that emails don't get automatically deleted from the server.