hello Paul and others after waisting loads of time trying to import contacts into windows live mail i finally got it. so here is how it is done for anyone else who wants it. first get your back up of your contacts and do a copy and paste from your back up folder into your windows 7 contacts folder. after that then do as follows. 1. press alt and g for the go menu 2. arrow down to contacts or control shift and c. 3. then do alt and f for file menu then arrow down to import 4. arrow down to address book for current windows user. press in here and the import will take place. just to let you know the contacts folder on the windows 7 machine does not work with windows live mail for some reason and this is how it has to be done. regards Vincent