I have used Windows Live Mail for a while and it handled binary newsgroups
reasonably well. i.e. click on a message and the message and any contained
picture would pop up.

Are you sure there isn't an option or setting you've overlooked? It
seems strange that such a basic function would change

Now the geniuses at Microsoft have come up with an "improved" version of
WLM. This requires me to double click on a message to bring up a thumbnail
image and I then have to double click on the thumbnail to bring up Windows
Photo Viewer so that I can actually see the image properly. After that,
unless I want myriad sessions of WPV running, I have to close the viewer and
close the thumbnail pane to begin the whole rigmarole once more for the
next image. Mumble, chunter, grumble......

Can you associate another viewer? Irfanview lets you open pictures in a
single window - or multiple windows if you prefer, and you can close it
with the esc key
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09=IX