GetLive - FreePops - Windows

 

This small howto is trying to help the Windows users that are coming from FreePops and having difficulty understand how GetLive works under Windows.

Structure

GetLive is a Perl script. That means that it doesn't run natively on your machine but needs a perl-interpreter. Under windows this is where ActiveState comes in. Such interpreter might need also some libraries beyond the standard ones to do it's work. We will need one, called "Net::Server". But the ActiveState distribution makes it really easy to add that.

While running, GetLive needs an helper program to retrieve html pages. That helper program is cURL.

With this little explanation, I hope to have explained the 3 elements in the installation :

Installing

C:\GetLive

Ok, let's go now. First of all I recommend to make a folder called "GetLive" at an appropriate place. I assume you make it directly under C:. But any other place will do as well. You will need to 'translate' my explanation though to a different folder.

ActiveState Perl

Grab the appropriate download at http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/downloads. You will likely take the msi file that corresponds to your windows version. Depending on your browser settings it will start installing immediately or you might need to click it after download. In any case, a standard install is ok.

Open a command prompt on your windows system. If you don't know how, this gives an explanation.

Issue following commands :

Now ActiveState perl is installed and has the necessary libraries.

cURL

Grab the appropriate download (with SSL !) at http://curl.haxx.se/download.html. You will get a 'zip' file that you need to 'unzip' with the help of a program such as 'WinZip'. It doesn't matter for the moment to where you unzip it.

Pick up the "exe" files and "dll" files and copy them to your Windows binary directory. I guess this is C:\Windows\System32, even for 64 bits systems. Not sure of the latter though.

GetLive

Get the latest GetLive download and unzip it to the C:\GetLive folder. Let's say, it creates a folder GetLive_2_2 (such as at the moment of this writing) under C:\GetLive.

We are done now ;)

Running

Open a command prompt on your windows system. If you don't know how, this gives an explanation.

Issue following commands :

You can take another port if you want to, but this needs to be reflected then in your mail client.

The command prompt window needs now to stay open (you can minimize it of course).

You should be able to connect to GetLive POP3 server to retrieve hotmail as was the case with FreePops.

Feedback

All feedback welcome as comment on this article. Or via mail.