Windows Live Mail takes ages to start after installing updates

I am running Windows 8.1. with Windows Live Mail as my email client.  I am unable to understand why now it takes WLM ages to start up.  Before it used to startup in less than half a minute.  Now from the time that I click the icon on my desktop, almost 10 minutes elapses before it starts up. 

Is it probable that the latest Windows updates (which I had just downloaded) could be the culprit as previously, on two occasions, after downloading Windows updates, I had similar problems (the machine would not even boot) and I was advised to Refresh but that deleted all my email messages in both the POP and Imap accounts.  In consequence, I had to re-create all my accounts afresh but when I connected to the internet and downloaded the messages, only message headers were recovered when imported but not the tax.  I therefore do not wish to Refresh yet again.

What could be the problem?  If the only solution is to Refresh once more, how do I backup all the messages in the respective folders of all the accounts (I have two POP accounts and three Imac accounts) and then, after a Refresh and re-creating all the accounts yet again, how do I restore the messages in the respective folders? 

I have even run a scan with Malwarebuytes Antivirus as well as with Windows Defender but the results were negative.  No threats were detected.  What then could be the problem?