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Best Email Program For Windows 7?

kookbreaker

Evil Fokker
kookbreaker
Joined
Aug 23, 2001
Messages
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OK, so I have a new computer for the store, which is great because I have a crapload of problems with this present machine. So I've been tweaking it for setup to replace this old computer.

The old machine is a Windows XP machine, the new unit is Windows 7. Fine and dandy but today I went looking for the Outlook Express or other program and couldn't find it. A quick websearch revealed that is because it is not there - Microsoft didn't bundle one in.

OK, no big thing (although completely counter to my experience with Microsoft in the past) but I still need an email program. Reviews seem to be few and far between, so any suggestions for those who have the Windows 7?
 
I don't bother with email software; I just use gmail for everything. But when I was deciding if I needed email software, I liked Thunderbird the best. It is developed by Mozilla like Firefox.
 
I second Thunderbird, but otherwise, I haven't used a software based email in years. Gmail/Hotmail have been my main email providers for the last 10 years.
 
Up until about a year ago I was a Thunderbird user, as well. The recent versions of it, however, are buggy as all get-out. Not transferring profiles correctly during upgrades, corrupted password .sql files, stubborn and slow account setup wizards. I dropped it and went back to Outlook. (I know, I know, so shoot me.)

I would recommend Windows Live Mail as another alternative, but it's irritating to use on a screen with fewer than 1024 vertical pixels. The way it stacks multiple email accounts on the far-left column means having to scroll all over the place to move from an inbox to a storage folder. Works fine on a desktop or portrait monitor, definitely not for most notebooks.

I guess I really don't have a solid recommendation; my current favorite is overpriced, and for me, there are gamestopper problems with the 2 main free alternatives.
 
I can't use gmail as this is for one of the store's email accounts.

Also I need to be able to actually download the emails off the server.
 
dtugg said:
I don't bother with email software; I just use gmail for everything. But when I was deciding if I needed email software, I liked Thunderbird the best. It is developed by Mozilla like Firefox.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Thunderbird works well if you don't want to use a web-based system. The Gmail web is very good.

I used Opera for web and email quite some time ago - it's probably improved since then.
 
arthwollipot said:
Agreed. Thunderbird works well if you don't want to use a web-based system.
Click to expand...

Also agreed. I've used t-bird for a couple of years now with no problems. I have a handful of e-mail accounts on different domains and t-bird handles them all nicely in one window; with different server settings for each.
 
arthwollipot said:
Agreed. Thunderbird works well if you don't want to use a web-based system. The Gmail web is very good.
Click to expand...
YAMT (Yet Another "Me, Too!")

There is a good reason to use a local Email application, though: Capturing messages to local storage for access when disconnected. Not everybody can be connected to the internet all the times they do their wetware processing.

With messages (or copies of) on your own systems, you have control over another layer of backup and recovery. While I'm sure Google has far more robust backup and recovery systems than I'll ever manage, I'm not so sure they can (nor should) be as responsive as I might like when something important goes AWOL. A local copy can also be accessible with alternate local credentials, so you'd have to lose more than one password to lose access to old traffic.
 
I use Outlook and it copes well with almost a decade of emails spread across many different accounts.
 
I've used a LOT of different email applications in the last 20 or so years (has it really been that long? I feel old now!) and even though I have gmail, I still prefer Thunderbird over ALL the others.
 
When my mom got a Windows 7 system, she wanted to use Outlook Express too. I told her it wasn't there, didn't look for it, and put her on Thunderbird. She was resistant but now she loves it, just like she took to Firefox when I told her that I wouldn't be providing free support for IE problems anymore. ;)
 
kookbreaker said:
I can't use gmail as this is for one of the store's email accounts.

Also I need to be able to actually download the emails off the server.
Click to expand...
Why is this a limitation? I use Gmail for pretty much everything. Any mail sent to {{anything@mydomain.co.uk}} goes to my gmail account. I can use any pop3/smtp client to access it if necessary.
 
Rat said:
Why is this a limitation? I use Gmail for pretty much everything. Any mail sent to {{anything@mydomain.co.uk}} goes to my gmail account. I can use any pop3/smtp client to access it if necessary.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to keep it simple. I'd rather not have the email browser-based.
 
elgarak said:
Microsoft offers "Windows Live Mail" as a free download in their "Essential" section. URL: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mail.

Never used it, though.

When I was still on Windows, I liked Thunderbird as well.
Click to expand...

Kookbreaker - I was so pleased to see this topic.

elgarak
My old Windows XP computer failed nearly four weeks ago, although the hard drive has been saved in case I want to put it into another machine. It seemed like a good idea to get something new - and it's fast and quiet!! I now have a DEL Vostro 260 ST etc, 3gig. It was delivered last Saturday and my son plugged it all in. It was all set up, with all my previous stuff loaded, except for OE, by Dolphin, because of the Supernova 12.4 software which needs to be on all the time. They said that OE was no longer 'supported by Windows' or something and that the new one was this WindowsLive Mail. So far, I really don't like it; not the layout, the highlighting, the font etc. This last though could well be because the best way for me to have such sites is with 'Ignore colours and fonts'.

I've learnt that F5 sends and receives for that weirdly named Sync heading, and that Ctrl+Y still gets the file list, but I've sent an e-mail to Dolphin asking how to get the address book, and why, when putting in a regularly-used e-mail address, there is a list of options instead of a highlighted fill-in.

sorry, kookbreaker - that's too long, and if you'd rather I start another thread, I will do so. But I'll leave it as is for now and read through what everyone else has said. Thanks for reading!

On Tuesday Panda Security loaded (using remote control) the anti-virus and she also mentioned something about it not working on Live Mail. so that will need a bit of thinking about too.
I do quite like a challenge though, and am prepared to persevere if in the end I'll be better satisfied than I was with OE!
 
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