Am I the only one still wrestling with email programs? I mean, I “get” the smart phone revolution for mail & all (but I like to type a lot once I get started) and facebook’s messaging really does work fine but… at the end of the day I like to see all my emails, sent and received, stored on my main computer in a program that I can trust.
My email client journey began way back in the days of Eudora (fancy version) and, more often than not, Eudora lite. I still miss some of the great functions Eudora provided and, apparently, am too lazy to figure out how to reproduce them since. Eudora had a sweet template reply system! My next stop was Pegasus. Pegasus could do most of what I loved about Eudora but it was a bit more clunky too. I also had the brief but required stint with Netscape’s Messenger (ah, remember the good old days when that aol trial disk was worth it just for the Netscape browser?), then on to a couple of webmail solutions (that totally scorched hundreds of my emails more than once when a corrupt message locked the entire folder up- I forget the names but there were a couple of early ones that really soured me on the webmail approach). Finally, I succumbed to Microsoft’s full on internet assault and began using Outlook Express along with IE. It wasn’t all smooth sailing though and 4 or 5 years ago (I think?) I switched completely over to Thunderbird.
Now, I should go on record here as saying that Thunderbird did a really good job most of the time. The search functions & auto-complete all work like I want them to and it normally got the job done… until recently. Like most people (I’m guessing) I have a bunch of email addresses. And these email addresses reside on more than one server with more than one operating system & configuration. Gmail does a pretty good job of roping them all in together and it’s a great solution for my phone but that route just isn’t going to cut it for me (back to the old webmail scenario I don’t relish). Anyway, everything was hunkeydorey with the bird until, starting a year or so I think, sending and receiving email started taking a long time. Gone were the snappy, quick-as-a-flash replies and inbox checks- I found myself waiting 30 seconds or more just for the client to communicate with the server. It was irritating, but definitely not a deal breaker by any means. THEN, I needed to add three new accounts (with more on the horizon) from a brand new server. Nothing special: all the normal server entries and authentication as far as I could see, BUT… it didn’t work. I wrestled with the settings, checked and double checked everything, searched online for a solution then finally gave up. I thought to myself “It’s a shame but I guess I can just link all the new addys to my gmail account and only access them online or on my phone or with the messy gmail integration back into Thunderbird itself. ” Goodness! Too many steps for something that should be so simple and straightforward!
Well, if that’s where the story ended you wouldn’t be reading this long, drawn out post right now. One night (which would be tonight actually) I decided to give a pre-installed program on my computer a whirl with these new accounts. I’m using Windows Vista and it came packaged with a little email proggy I’ve never even bothered to look at: Windows Mail. I don’t know the history behind this program but I believe it was created in 2006 by Microsoft as a quick & dirty replacement for Outlook Express (part of the Vista package). I’m beginning to think it’s actually quick & clean though! Here is my experience thus far…
The program fired up fast! No unnecessary feature bloat at all as far as I can tell. There is a calendar included but it is also super clean and quick. Setting up my new email accounts was ridiculously simple (as it should be) and once I had them associated with the program I fired off a couple of test emails to and from the accounts with Thunderbird open on the other end. I expected total failure.
As usual, T-bird took its sweet time sending the test emails. I flipped over to Windows Mail and hit send/receive and guess what- the test emails came through lightning fast! “This is too good to be true.” I thought, “Especially for a Microsoft product!” So, I sent test replies back and I didn’t have to wait a second before they were GONE. Surely they didn’t actually make it through whatever snags had been hanging up my Thunderbird email client so easily! Then, I switched back over to Thunderbird, checked for mail on all accounts… waited the mandatory 30 seconds or so… and shabam! My test replies were there! How? Why? I don’t know & don’t care. I just need for it to work!
I took the test a step further and entered all my other email address information into the Windows Mail account list and, you guessed it, the thing worked like a charm. I’m going to give it a full test run for a few months just to see if this snappy program continues to delight.
I may be typing something different in a week or two but right now Windows Mail gets a big two thumbs up from this surprised email junky!
*I just googled Windows Mail and discovered that Microsoft actually started paying attention to the nimble, little program and released a newer version with more features [read: performance sucking bling]. That figures. The new email client is called Windows Live Mail. One of their additions is integration with their chat app. I don’t plan on going near it anytime soon.*
Oh yeah, I need to plug a few new sites while I’m here (sorry): medical supplies, remote control toys, camping supplies and pet supplies. Ah, almost forgot- another sinner and water filters
. But… she missed being able to hold the lighter, smaller version and she traded the big one to me for my new little one.