Windows Live: Message list pane missing

Message list pane missing

My friend lost his message list pane in WLMD. (He has Vista as his operating system.) I tried everything since he is not computer savvy. He first noticed this yesterday (Wed July 22, 09).

Anyhow, the first thing I did was check his layout but it was set to automatic. But I selected each other option too just to run a check but the message list still didn't show up. I did a repair on WLMD. didn't work. I uninstalled and reinstalled WLMD. didn't work. I removed the email accounts and added them as new. But they installed as before with no message list. On line, he has over 600 messages in his inbox, but he cannot view them in WLMD even though on the bottom left side of the WLMD screen, it reports the above 600 emails.
He uses his computer for work. I showed him how to access his email online but he is not computer savvy at all and it was making him nervous So, if anyone has a solution for this, it would be great.

As a side not (but maybe not), when I tried a system restore, I noticed that there were 3 or 4 Windows updates installed the day this happened July 22, 09. Could they be the problem? Oh yeah, the system would not restore.
Thanks for your help,