Thunderbird better than windows live mail?

welshdragon · 4 Feb 2012 at 22:50

Getting fed up with windows live mail. Finding it quite slow and thinking of a change. Is Thunderbird much cop? I've got outlook 2007 but not fussed on that. And I prefer a client on the pc to being completely web based. What do people think?

welshdragon · 5 Feb 2012 at 11:58

Aynone have any experience of these and can whcih is better?

CaptainCrash · 5 Feb 2012 at 12:21

Why don't you just download it and try it out for yourself?

Personally I prefer Live Mail, mainly because after all this time Thunderbird *still* doesn't have a satisfactory three-panel vertical view mode, where the message list wraps onto multiple lines. Thunderbird does seem a little faster though, and obviously it's a better choice if you work with different platforms and you want to keep everything in sync (with the exception of Hotmail accounts, which AFAIK it can't handle).

UnworthyBean · 5 Feb 2012 at 13:03

CaptainCrash said:
Why don't you just download it and try it out for yourself?

Without meaning to sound harsh, I agree with this.

I tried both out, Whilst thunderbird had some great features I just preferred the interface of Windows live.

However I've ditched both now and just use the one on my phone, But you didn't need to know that

ian54 · 5 Feb 2012 at 13:26

I moved to Thunderbird when I upgraded to Windows 7 from XP because I didn't fancy Live and always found to to be satisfactory with very few problems, most of which come after an update. I've been using it for both POP and IMAP accounts.

When I retired my Palm and moved onto Android I installed the Lightning plug-in to replace Palm desktop and find the Thunderbird/Lightning combination to be a more than adequate as a replacement/alternative for Outlook 2003/2007/2010, which I have used at work.

welshdragon · 5 Feb 2012 at 13:40

CaptainCrash said:
Why don't you just download it and try it out for yourself?

UnworthyBean said:
Without meaning to sound harsh, I agree with this.

I have downloaded it and will be trying it out. Bit anal about keeping my install really clean so just wanted to gauge opinion as to whether to bother or not in the meantime. But I will be trying it out this afternoon.

CaptainCrash · 5 Feb 2012 at 13:48

welshdragon said:
I have downloaded it and will be trying it out. Bit anal about keeping my install really clean so just wanted to gauge opinion as to whether to bother or not in the meantime. But I will be trying it out this afternoon.

Hardly worth worrying about a handful of registry entries IMO, but if you prefer there's a PortableApps version where everything is self-contained.

welshdragon · 5 Feb 2012 at 14:24

Thats cool. But yeah fair enough about the reg entries

Phil2008 · 6 Feb 2012 at 01:16

The best thing about thunderbird its so simple to backup and restore. All you do is backup or move the thunderbird folder in username\appdata\roaming.

This is the main reason Ive used thunderbird since the winxp days, cos the backing up, restoring is a doddle and you dont loose your accounts either. All the other email progs Ive used have been a real pain in the backside to backup and restore

Magic_x_uk · 6 Feb 2012 at 07:31

can you use thunderbird in the following. One old computer running XP and using outlook and now a new computer being built which will have win 7 32 on it. Can you import the PST file from outlook in to it??

thanks

Phil2008 · 6 Feb 2012 at 14:43

Magic_x_uk said:
can you use thunderbird in the following. One old computer running XP and using outlook and now a new computer being built which will have win 7 32 on it. Can you import the PST file from outlook in to it??

thanks

Thunderbird works fine in xp, but Im not sure about importing from outlook, as I havent used the import and export for donkeys years.

welshdragon · 6 Feb 2012 at 21:51

So far really liking thunderbird. 2 questions...

I've added hotmail but it doesn't show my sub folders where I have sorted mail to?

With regards mail in general does thunderbrid operate from the server or does it store all mail locally?

ian54 · 6 Feb 2012 at 23:00

Magic_x_uk said:
can you use thunderbird in the following. One old computer running XP and using outlook and now a new computer being built which will have win 7 32 on it. Can you import the PST file from outlook in to it??

thanks

I migrated from XP using Outlook Express to 7 using Thunderbird, the PST was imported no problem.

welshdragon · 7 Feb 2012 at 13:58

Really liking Thunderbird, particularly the tabbed browsing of emails. Can anyone answer the following for me? Google appears not to be my friend today:

I've added hotmail but it doesn't show my sub folders where I have sorted mail to?

With regards mail in general does thunderbrid operate from the server or does it store all mail locally?

Vimes · 7 Feb 2012 at 14:10

I've added hotmail but it doesn't show my sub folders where I have sorted mail to?

As I have Yahoo accounts I used to use filtering so that certain mail would go into their own folders. That was fine when I used only the Yahoo web based mail access. But when I have used Thunderbird or Windows Live Mail Desktop it would not acknowledge that mail which had been filtered is also there to be downloaded, if that makes sense.! Both of those clients would only download mail from the inbox within Yahoo.
So I had to either filter within Yahoo but read it there or filter locally or not at all.

With regards mail in general does thunderbrid operate from the server or does it store all mail locally?

Tools>Account settings>Server settings

The above allows you to select what you would want Thunderbird to do.

Stoner81 · 7 Feb 2012 at 14:53

I use Thunderbird all the time with my various gmail accounts plus Google Apps. I refuse to use anything else

and I also use MozBackup to backup my profile from Thunderbird so it saves all my settings, extensions, themes etc.

Stoner81.

welshdragon · 7 Feb 2012 at 15:35

Yes really liking it now and really gutted I can't see my hotmail folders. Done some research it looks like a pop3 issue and needs to be an imap account for thunderbird to see folders. Didn't think it would be an issue since hotmail has exchange support.

Really gutted as liking thunderbird more than live mail now.

Azza · 7 Feb 2012 at 15:51

As you say you need to be using IMAP to see your various sub folders and what not. Thunderbird doesn't support Exchange or should that be the other way round to be technically correct.

This is the only solution I've found which might work for you - http://thunderbirdtweaks.blogspot.com/2011/11/thunderbird-and-exchange-owa.html

welshdragon · 7 Feb 2012 at 16:32

Cheers for that, shall take a look now. I suppose another reason to migrate off my hotmail account. I assume microsoft do this to keep you locked in?

Azza · 7 Feb 2012 at 16:46

welshdragon said:
Cheers for that, shall take a look now. I suppose another reason to migrate off my hotmail account. I assume microsoft do this to keep you locked in?

I'd guess so, want to get people using Outlook instead of other clients.