Working on a laptop running W8.1.  Using Windows Live Mail 2012 because that's what was running on previous laptop.

Now it won't start.  Splash screen just sits there.  The first time this happened, after trying sfc /scannow and repair all Essentials programs, and running MalwareBytes, I did a system restore.  That solved the problem, but only for a few days.

So now I am asking how I can salvage the content - primarily inbox, sent files, contacts - before I try a reinstall.  I found the folder where the messages seem to be located, but for some reason when I right click the folder in File Explorer (to move or rename it) I get the spinning blue ball and File Explorer stops responding.  Guess that could be a symptom too.  Windows Live Mail files seem to be in a lot of places.

I am not the first person on the forum with these problems, but I haven't seen a cure.  Any recommendations on an alternate e-mail program, short of jumping to Gmail or Outlook.com, are gladly accepted as well.