Do you currently use Outlook Express for your email? If you plan to upgrade to Windows 7 or buy a Windows 7 computer, you will need to find a new way to send and receive email.
The Outlook Express email application has been the main stay of every version of Windows since Windows 95. It changed slightly with Vista and was called Windows Mail.
With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft no longer includes the popular email program. Instead, Microsoft hopes you will download and install Windows Live Essentials which includes Windows Live Mail.
Windows Live Mail is a hybrid program that works sort of like a standalone program, but is tightly integrated to the web. I don’t like half way, personally. The program is slow, wants you to sign up with HotMail (Microsoft’s web based email), and many report it as being a little buggy as well.
I recommend avoiding Windows Live Mail.
That leaves emailers with a few options
Are you using Windows 7 yet? What are you using for email? Planning to go to Windows 7…what are your plans for email? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
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I Already us Gmail on our XP desktop and plan to use it on my wife’s new laptop running Windows 7.
Excellent, and it will make the transition that much easier for you already being on Gmail.
I am a huge Thunderbird fan. I don’t have a lot of reasons other than the fact that the people that made Thunderbird made Firefox. I can’t wait until Thunderbird 3 comes out in the near future.
I’m all for living in the cloud and all, but the thought of selling an operating system without some sort of mail client seems idiotic to me. Of course, I think different than most.
Daniel, I have to agree…especially after including it for almost 15 years! Of course, I think different too and think that Office 2007 and .docx, .xlsx extensions contributed to a lot of a lost productive time world wide!
yes I use windows 7 . 1 desktop ok and 1 laptop not so good .I was Gmail beta love it .my isp email is gmail relaibed
You must be on a satellite service? I know WildBlue uses Gmail as their email system. Thanks for the comment.
yes I use wildblue
I’ve use windows 7 for my laptop. But for mail client, I still use mozilla thunderbird, hehehehe.
Yep Thunderbird is a great system…makes it easy to use any computer operating system. I am still partial to Gmail, though….love the cloud!
I just installed windows 7 on one PC and had not noticed that outlook express was missing. I didn’t use it much in the past, but I always knew it was there – just in case. This is the 2nd big miss for windows 7 for me. First was the missing remote desktop server in the home version and now this. Microsoft wants another $70 for a remote desktop server – VNC here I come.
They hit a lot of nice spots with Windows 7 (finally), but I agree that they did so at the expense of some features and options we were used to having.
I used to be a user of Outlook Express and was wary of web based email solutions. Ever since I have switched to gmail I have never looked back. The search capabilities and speed of gmail have allowed me to keep all my email back to 2000 (after importing my old mail) and I can find anything from years ago in a few seconds. In my opinion gmail plus gmail notifier (for system tray notification) equals total email solution.
I couldn’t agree more…some people ask, “What do I do if I don’t have a connection to the Internet?” I look at them and ask, “When was the last time you were unable to access the Internet?”.
I just installed Windows 7 last night on my home PC (finally). I have been avoiding it because of school and that I am comfortable with my setup. After a 1 minute 45 second boot of Vista last night, enough was enough!
Anyways, why not use Gmail and enable offline access through Gears? This is what I do, although I am mostly connected to the internet anyways.
After my install last night I logged on to Gmail and enabled offline access for Google Docs, Google Calendar and Gmail. It only took about a minute and now I have the Gmail experience any type, online or off.
This is good info to know in case I use Windows 7 in the future I will continue to use Eudora.
I have been using Eudora since it was on DOS.
Eudora will obtain my email from gmail and gmx in addition to my ISP.
BTW, gmx is another great free email service. I like the fact that you can have a “.us” address.
http://mail-us.gmx.com/
Thanks for the link and good to see another Eudora fan! It might make a come back with Windows 7.
[...] Windows 7 Email Options via Castellini On Computers [...]
Just upgraded to Windows 7 on a new laptop. I own MS office so I am still using outlook. I have a number of different email addresses tied to my website address. I have used outlook for the last 10 years as a pop mail setup…I can still retrieve my email from the server with web-mail from any computer in the rare instance I don’t have my own. I also have business contact manager mailing lists, and everything syncs to my phone. What advantage would there be for me to switch?
A good question, and one that kept me using Outlook longer than I probably could have. For me it’s the searching, ubiquity, organization, and speed of Gmail. For the extremely rare instances, I’m not able to get an Internet connection, it’s a welcome break.
I tried to put in thunderbird but it conflicted with my wireless laptop, It just wont receive my e-mail because I’m using outlook express on the desktop and it’s carried over from yahoo. Take care Rick and God bless.
Ray
Not sure why Thunderbird would conflict with your wireless…it shouldn’t have any bearing on connections what-so-ever.
I use GMail. It is a great program – never runs out of space; and I store a lot in the files that I create. I am not terribly crazy about
Rick: Am using msn/hotmail, and tho got very upset when they took away OE, I tried Gmail, Inbox.com, Yahoo, and found they all were too restrictive, so settled in with Hotmail,
and it seems to serve my needs just fine. It has the address picker, not so slow attaching, limit is 250 a day (usually enough), and spam and junk folders (that helps).
Do not like Windows Live either.
Sure enjoy your newsletters and help. Thanks Mel
If you are still in the midst of changing, you might want to take another look at Gmail (search my site for how-to tips), it FAR exceeds the abilities of Hotmail.
I agree with you, Rick. GMail is the best option for webmail, hands down. There is so much to it, yet it is very easy to use. I think that your video tutorial on GMail is excellent as well.
Also remember, GMail has OFFLINE ACCESS! haha
Have a good one, buddy.
I sadly experienced this firsthand…. and it was actually a big pain in the ass switching from the convenience of Outlook Express to regular Microsoft Outlook. I know Outlook has an abundance of features and stuff… but seriously, it’s hard to beat the easy of use that Outlook Express provides!
I couldn’t agree more Travis…another huge miss by Microsoft.
Just upgraded from Vista to 7 – can’t see any real advantage yet. If you had Windows Mail before, don’t mess around, just download Windows Live Mail and let it do all the work. Tried Googlemail but couldn’t be bothered with learning what it does and doesn’t do and it wouldn’t import my old emails (it may have done but I didn’t see the point browsing forums trying to find out how to do it)
You are correct, Gmail does not import existing email, but the advantages that it does offer are superior to any system I’ve tried. Thanks for the comment and come on back and let me know how you like Windows Live Mail after you use it for awhile. Always like to hear feedback.
Thanks Rick, I have Windows 7 and am pleased with it except for the lack of OE. I am using Gmail which I like but I can only send emails which appear to leave me. My Inbox is permenantly empty. My SP is Virgin Media and they are only geared to assisting me with their mail system which is even worse. I receive mails but they disappear almost immediatly and yes I have been contacting them about it.
The settings at Gmail are a bit of a mystery to me and I suspect that it might be a problem with my new computer and Windows 7, but I can find no one with a similar problem.
Hi Rick,
Haven’t switched to Win 7 yet but am planning to soon.
I am also looking for an email solution. One solution I am considering is using windows mail from Vista. A google search reveals that this can be done fairly easily. I love windows mail and don’t want to give it up.
I just migrated my desktop Vista to Windows 7. Had been using windows live mail, downloaded/reinstalled windows live mail and had it working but then I still had to install anti-virus. Had been using Kaspersky internet security; downloaded new, compatible version for windows 7. Now Windows Live Mail won’t work. It freezes up and shuts down. Tried everything to fix. Even exited Kaspersky but still won’t work. Now looking to dump it and trying to decide what to use for my email program.
I would strongly suggest trying out Gmail (you can import your current address to it and not have to change it) OR try out the new Thunderbird 3.0 which has been re-designed and looks great and is faster too!
I am in my middle 70′s and frustrated.
Because health issues require I be hooked up to a machine for feeding. I decided to to buy a laptop and with a wireless router be able to use basic internet services without having tobe in my den/office where my beloved xp desktop is.
So I bought one in august with vista and just installed The windows 7 upgrade.
Darn, I want OE or windows mail for this darn thing.
Since the 7 upgrade I have d/l’d Thunderbird but haven’t been able to figure out how to get my OE address book info in to Thunderbird via taking a copy of theDesktop .wab file to the laptop.
Mislead by the info that installing windows 7 would, while I would lose Windows mail, all my mailsettings would be preserved, I didn’t install thunderbird while vista was on the machine. I now think had I done so I would be O.K. since my other installed (while vista was the OS)programs remained intact.
Any hints
If you click Start –> [your username], double-click Contacts, Click Import & use the Windows 7 contact wizard to import your .wab file, you can then use the built-in export tool to create a more universal CSV file and import it into your Thunderbird. Good luck.
Had to buy a new computer and it came with Windows 7, which I hate so far. Soooo frustrating. Too many glitches and now I don’t know how to e-mail pictures from my computer.
How do I do this without going insane?
Hello Patricia…You will need to attach photos manually from within your web based email system. If you have a Gmail account, you can use Picasa and easily sent photos using it.
Well, Rick, I’ve tried’em all. At the moment I’m still using Thunderbird and Windows Live Mail. I just wanted to mention one other option. I’ve been using Foxmail 5.0.800 for a while now and it seems bug free.
http://www.foxmail.com.cn
best of luck,
Old Geek
Forgive me, folks. The above link won’t work for most of you. It’s best to get it from major geeks instead.
http://majorgeeks.com/Foxmail_d2055.html
good luck.
My boss bought his wife a netbook for Christmas running Windows 7 Starter. I set her up on Thunderbird but it won’t send outgoing mail (SMTP) to many addresses resulting in a 5.1.1 error message about relaying SMTP messages. I have Windows 7 Home edition using Thunderbird with no problems. I then set her up with Windows Live (hated it). So for the time being she is checking her Cox email through webmail.cox.net.
I may try Eudora…..
I am currently using OE on a desktop running XP. I will be transferring everything to a laptop currently running Vista, and I want to switch to gmail. In what order should I execute these installations/transfers?
I forgot to mention that I will also be upgrading to Windows 7. Hence, the question about the order.
Check out my Gmail link in the article..it will take you to my beginner series of Gmail videos and will help you with the transition. Good choice!