Good choice of manufacturer for the laptop. I have found the best course of action is to always download any updates from the HP support site. Any problems I have experienced have come from downloading generic drivers directly from Microsoft.
As far as Windows Mail is concerned, I would be inclined to give whatever comes with the machine a go. It might work fine for you. Generally people resist updating to the latest and presumably safest versions because it is natural to resist change in the way you are used to doing things. You are suggesting that you might consider continuing with using an older and perhaps inferior program.
Give it a go and see if it works for what you need it for, otherwise go for a third party application that does exactly what you want, how you want.