Readers Respond: Which Free Windows Email Program Do You Use?

Responses: 144

By Heinz Tschabitscher, About.com Guide

See More About

(Continued from Page 2)

I use multiple browsers, most support multiple homepages which are the varied research interests of mine, but for general and default use I choose an internet application with address book, IRC chat, browser, email and newsgroups, and composer (html), a descendant of Netscape, sibling of Thunderbird and Firefox, and suitable as only internet app or home office with the poetic name SeaMonkey. It has many extensions to extend its capabilities and for security; although it has some built in features that you can only get in Firefox and Thunderbird as extensions, e.g. a capable cookie manager. For home office the extension Lightning, calendar, makes it Outlight. Most offices don’t need Outlook. If I could only choose one, I’d choose SeaMonkey.
—saintsatinstain

I liked the simple functionality of Outlook Express. Pocomail offers the same and runs fine in W7x64. Tried Zimbra, Thunderbird, Pegasus & nothing tempts me to change.
—Guest Captain Scarlet

Firefox is an excellent browser. If you don't carefully save anything according to their instructions, a normal backup is useless. The same applies to Tbird! Since both are community supported, if you have a problem you post it to a forum. But since both applications are FREE, not much to argue about.
—kaypro11

I have used Eudora for the last 15+ years, and although Qualcomm dropped the paid mode it, the last 7.1 version is very functional and rock-solid. Great spam filter, lightening fast search option and highly configurable.
—Guest Suggarstalk

ZMware Zimbra is AMAZING. Within 10 minutes had all 5 of my email clients (work, school, you know how it is) up and running. That's 2 AIM names, Gmail, Yahoo, and a Microsoft Exchange address. Combined inbox and individual tabs, all clearly labelled, makes finding emails easy. I was a t-bird for a while, but — man! — am I glad I looked around!
—Guest freakish_neko

I've used Eudora right from the #3 version it has all I require, and more. The current is 7.1, there are a few items seem to be missing, but always used Sponsored mode. That may account for that, but I would recommend Eudora, not the OSE yet.
—Guest Bunderlog

These reviews from people are very helpful in my opinion — we can learn and benefit from the experience of others — i'm going to try Eudora — and will bring back an opinion after experiencing it. Currently, I've been using Outlook 2003… but it's never quite made me the happiest person on earth, like I want . LOL
—Guest Headlump

Just spent a couple of hours trying to get Thunderbird to connect to my mail account all to no avail. What kind of software writers produce such stuff? Where is a good replacement for Outlook Express?
—grandpajack

I have been using Thunderbird for my own domain mail for a long time, but since the last update (7.1), when I try to set up an account it won't accept the password for the SMTP server, there is no support, and you can't even remove the entire program. I am going to give eM Client a try, then possibly PocoMail and Eudora.
—Guest gufbal.com

This program is great. I have been using this for a year, [and] I would recommend if you used Outlook. It is very easy to use, and [I] haven’t had any problems on Windows 7.
—Phhoeworks

I have used Thunderbird for years, from version 2 to version 7.0.1. Since I upgraded to version 7, I was very happy with it. However, since they sent upgrades to that version, many of my selected options do not work! I cannot bold, italicize, underline, enlarge or shrink, or change colors in the body of the email. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get any help from Mozilla at all. I also use Yahoo as my secondary email and I am going to use this as my primary email. I don't have any problems with this email. Thunderbird is going in the JUNK folder!
—Guest GEM

I use Mulberry frequently, and it is very powerful, though about as intricate to set up as Pegasus Mail, but more reliable.
—Guest Guest Lance

Like you guess in Mac platforms, I just install Thunderbird on Win7x32. To be honest, I did it two times before, but I think that I didn't had enough time to tune it up. Totally wrong! I trued everything, but I couldn't do: -To change incoming server settings. I couldn't find anything. -There is no way to write anything in message body. - There is no inbox, sent or any other folder, except TRASH. That is it! THUNDERBIRD is TRASH! The worst program I ever tried. Firefox is good!
—Guest svpetar

Like others that have commented here, Windows Live Mail has many unresolved problems. Address book regularly looses contacts, spam and deleted emails will not auto delete and my one Hotmail address takes forever to connect and download emails. I am currently looking for a replacement email program… but one without all the added garbage. ( calendars, facebook, etc…) I have tried a few but many are to buggy to talk about. Microsoft has made a big mistake by not providing an email program with Win 7… I know of 5 people who switched to Mac because Microsoft is just not listening… There have been thousands of complaints over this issue and again MS is just not listening. Wake Up Microsoft and start listening to your client base before there is a mass switch to Mac…
—Guest giantkiller