Alternatives to Windows Live Mail?

Malte279 · **on:** October 22, 2012, 10:02:36 AM

Hello,
after the recent drama of my many computer repairs it appears that it is kind of fixed for the time being (with a new harddrive, a new screen and a new keyboard I don't think there is much left of the original computer which I had handed in for repairs in early August to begin with

). Computer problems are a very loyal companion though and I got troubles once again, though they are more software rather than hardware based (at least that's what I think).
Thing is that I am a fanatic archivist (common obsession for historians I think

) and I had always found the e-mail programs of Microsoft (Outlook Express and now Windows Life Mail) to be useful programs when it comes not just to write, send and receive emails but also to store them. I still got emails dating back to more than ten years ago, including mails that not only document (like a diary) my experiences during my students exchange, but also the founding of this very board, its predecessors and the "first contacts" with many friends and fellow GOF members.
However Windows Life Mail has lately developed the highly annoying habbit of constantly freezing and crashing almost (but not quite) every time I start the program. Therefore I am considering the use of a different program for my emails.
Because I absolutely don't intend to end the archiving and storing of my emails I am looking for a program that allows to download and store emails, but is more stable than the windows programs. If possible the program should allow to import archives of Windows Life Mail emails and it ought to provide the option of saving and archiving the mails it receives in one file. The later criteria are those which apparently the most prominent non-microsoft email program Thunderbird, does not fulfill.
Does anyone of you know of / use any software that allows for the receiving and archiving even of large amounts of emails?

DarkHououmon · **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2012, 12:37:12 PM

Thunderbird is my first choice. I've used it myself. It is capable of reading Windows Live mail, but what do you mean by "import archives"? Wouldn't they be stored on your computer? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Malte279 · **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2012, 03:00:47 PM

I am refering to all those emails which I have received so far. They are stored in windows live "archive files" which I'm afraid cannot be read by most other programs. The same kind of freezing seems to apply to the windows life messenger as well now.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2012, 03:01:48 PM

What is the file extension for the archives?

And I can tell you that Thunderbird is fully capable of retrieving emails from Windows Live and can archive them. So maybe there is a chance it can read Windows Live archives, via a plugin.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2012, 07:12:07 AM

I really don't understand why people use email clients anymore nowadays unless they have to. Email clients store the actual emails on your computer so you can't access them any other way or from any other computer (unless you store them on your computer AND the server, but settings and deleted emails won't be the same). Webmail is 100x better. If you have a Gmail account, go to Gmail. Hotmail, go to Hotmail. If you have a custom (like I do (S*********s****@austinscomputers.com)), you can go through the webmail of your webhost (in my case, GoDaddy). Unless the company you're working for is forcing you to use outlook or something, I really don't see the point of email clients nowadays. You should really switch to webmail Malte.

But if you've already explored that option, I second Thunderbird. At least if your computer crashes and won't boot up you won't lose all your email with thunderbird. Your emails are located under C:\Users\(username)\appdata\local\Mozilla\Thunderbird. Just dump the whole directory onto an external hard drive after your OS crashes and import it into your appdata after you get a new hard drive and reinstall Windows and you can keep everything just the way you had it before (folders, POP/SMTP data, Emails, Contacts, Calender, etc.).

DarkHououmon · **Reply #5 on:** October 23, 2012, 07:58:45 AM

It is possible to read email from an email client on more than one computer actually. I have the portable version of Thunderbird, so I can put it on a USB stick and take it wherever I go. Instant access to all my emails.

As for why people use email clients still, well it's a personal preference. Not everyone is totally satisfied with just webmail. I don't see what's so hard to understand about that. There doesn't need to be some huge, spectacular reason to use an email client. It can be as simple as "they want to".

Why I use an email client, I actually go back and forth. I do still use the webmail versions a lot, but using Thunderbird is much more convenient. It allows me a way to access all my email accounts at once (I have 7, 8 if you count my Spartan one, which no longer works at the moment anyway because it's a school email). And without having to log in or out or having to open up a new browser to do so. With Thunderbird, I can be logged in to all 7 emails in one window. Convenient.

I also use it to archive emails to clear up some space, and to clean out some old emails I don't often log into otherwise. It's much easier clearing out an email with Thunderbird as it seems to fit everything onto one page. So it's as simple as highlighting all the emails, right click, and Delete Selected Messages. With Webmail, if I had, oh say, 120 emails I didn't read, I would have to go through multiple pages to delete them all. Oh and I also use it as an RSS feeder; I'm subscribed to some RSS feeds and I check them once in a while. Sometimes there's interesting stuff.

Malte279 · **Reply #6 on:** October 23, 2012, 08:25:24 AM

Quote

You should really switch to webmail Malte.

Nope, while I do see your point when it is really important for someone to archive ones mail but if one doesn't want to go through the time intensive work of saving every individual mail (sent and received) seperately webmail is not an option. Several providers which I used for that have been deleting my old mail, and hacker attacks on providers too have destroyed some of my mail, many providers limit the amount of space to store ones mail or start deleting it after a fixed amount of time. I did loose some of my "precious historical sources" in each way. So not using any mail client is not an option for me.
Chances are that some of the issues I had were caused by a version of Java not up to date. I'm not sure if that is related but in any case the issues have not occured again since I did the required update (so here's to hope).

Mumbling · **Reply #7 on:** October 23, 2012, 09:18:17 AM

Hey Malte, I've been using hotmail since 2006 and I still have emails dating from that time. Hotmail pretty much has unlimited storage so you can simply archive the emails in seperate folders and keep them for as long as you like. I don't have a solution for your problem, but as for the archivation of emails, webmail can do the same job as an email client. Next to that I believe Hotmail and Outlook are merged these days so you have the same functions on hotmail as you would have on Outlook.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #8 on:** October 23, 2012, 10:30:52 AM

Problems with webmail are extremely unlikely if used properly. I don't mean to point fingers, but normally unauthorized access comes from the legitimate owner not choosing a good enough password. A good password needs a capital letter, lower case letter, number, and special character. And use a popular webmail service. Gmail or Hotmail are obvious choices but there are others. Smaller email providers DO in fact delete old mail or mail that reaches beyond a certain threshold in size (1GB is pretty standard). That's why you have to go with a large, reputable email provider. Realistically your email is 1000x safer on webmail than on your computer's hard drive.

One other thing is that if you use webmail in conjunction with an email client, the email client needs to be configured PROPERLY. Basically you have to set it up so it doesn't delete emails from the webmail server after downloading them to your computer, otherwise you're in a world of hurt.

As for portable versions of Thunderbird on a flash drive, you have to realize that most people aren't that savvy. Most people don't even know what a program is, let alone how to set it up like that. I start talking about POP and SMTP settings to a normal client of mine and their eyes just glaze over. The method you're talking about would be the best possible use of webmail that I can think of. But is still extremely inefficient when compared to webmail. There's nothing you can do on webmail that you can do in an email client. A good webmail provider that is.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #9 on:** October 23, 2012, 12:23:54 PM

I didn't know Hotmail offered an option to archive emails all at once. Or am I misunderstanding something?

Also, Malte, I don't know of a lot of webmail providers that limit their storage anymore. Yahoo used to be limited but they recently changed to unlimited. And as Isis said, Hotmail is also unlimited. Pretty sure GMail is also unlimited. Email clients used to have the edge over webmail when it came to storage, but this isn't really the case anymore.