Free Mail Checkers For Windows

Check all your email accounts right from your desktop

A free mail checker provides a quick way to check your email without needing a full email client always running. A few will let you compose, reply, and forward messages too. Still, those that don't are still great for taking a quick look at your email folders.

You never need to pay for an email checker program. Plenty of them are 100 percent free and should provide all the features you need. Plus, you can add all your email accounts to the same program.

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PopTray

PopTray website
What We Like
  • Free to download.

  • Easy to customize.

  • Handles multiple email accounts.

What We Don't Like
  • Not updated since 2006.

  • Extra features require plug-ins.

  • Only supports POP3 protocol.

PopTray is a free email checker for Windows with lots of useful features. It supports adding email accounts using POP3.

You can preview and delete messages. Plus, it supports adding an unlimited number of accounts, meaning you can check all your email accounts from the same place.

Here are more features you'll get with PopTray:

  • Rules to treat specific messages differently than others, such as play a unique sound, run an EXE file, mark it as spam, or delete it.
  • Custom keyboard shortcuts and mouse actions.
  • Different accounts can be listed in different colors.
  • You can specify how often (in minutes) to check for new mail.
  • Supports plugins for adding features, which you can get here.
  • The total message count is shown in the program's icon on the taskbar.
  • Lots of customizable settings.
02
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EmailTray

EmailTray website
What We Like
  • Ranks emails by importance.

  • Learns from your email behavior.

  • Manage email in one place.

What We Don't Like
  • Outlook and web-based email only.

  • Limited to the computer where it's installed.

  • No contact list integration.

EmailTray is a bit more than an email notifier since it also lets you send emails, making it more of a full-fledged email client. It checks and unifies all your POP and IMAP email accounts.

This free email checker shows the unread email countdown by the clock on the taskbar so that you can quickly see how many emails you have yet to open.

The email backup service is amazing in EmailTray since it lets you back up your email to a file for easy restoration should you ever need it. It can even do this for you automatically, as often as every day.

EmailTray also supports these features:

  • Messages are categorized automatically between the top, low, and no priority emails.
  • Supports a "game/silent mode" so that all notifications are suppressed while using fullscreen applications like media players and video games.
  • Email alerts can be any custom WAV file on your computer and configured differently for the top, low, and no priority messages.
  • Reminders can be shown for unread messages for up to 30 minutes after they're received.
  • You can use a photo in the email signature.
  • Supports custom email rules like marking messages as read automatically, archive incoming messages that meet the rule criteria, and more.
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jetMailMonitor

JetMail website.
What We Like
  • Supports up to 50 email accounts.

  • Synchronizes computer clock with atomic clock.

  • Automatic spam email removal.

What We Don't Like
  • POP3 protocol only.

  • Very basic interface.

  • Configuration is not intuitive.

jetMailMonitor is a smart tool that can check up to 50 email accounts with several useful options.

This program is super lightweight and perfect for anyone not wanting a whole email client since all it does is check for new messages and show you the content.

jetMailMonitor has lots of useful options and features. Here are a few:

  • You can check messages in three ways: x seconds after the program starts, when a certain hotkey is pressed on the keyboard, or immediately.
  • The mail check time can be seconds, minutes, or hours, or set to a specific time of day.
  • You can configure spam rules.
  • Notifications for new emails can be heard through a custom WAV sound and seen by changing the program icon to a custom image. You can optionally configure a dialog box notification.
  • You set how many lines of the email are visible through the program.
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POP Peeper

POP Peeper website
What We Like
  • Supports popular web-based email services.

  • Small footprint.

  • User-friendly interface.

What We Don't Like
  • Doesn't download email.

  • Uninstall is not thorough.

  • Doesn't give full control over e-mail accounts.

POP Peeper is an email announcer and smart tool for browsing and quickly deleting mail in an email account. It supports POP and IMAP accounts.

This program can automatically import email account information from clients you might already be using, like Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook Express, and others.

POP Peeper is a bit more than an email checker since it also supports full email client features like sending and forwarding an email. Still, it's lightweight enough as a perfect solution for monitoring new emails.

Here are some more features:

  • Supports Webmail and sending emails over SMTP.
  • It can be "installed" in a portable mode so that you can keep it on a flash drive or other portable device.
  • You can configure the program in three security modes to block attachments, prevent loading HTML, and more.
  • Email server information is pre-populated for you so that you don't have to locate it when you set up your account.
  • Lots of settings you can change to customize the program.
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