If you have read my prior messages, I installed K-Meleon on my old computer and this morning my Mom sent a message to family saying it is working great.

Now I am moving on to transitioning from Outlook Express. Are there any "light" programs that would be good on old computers for sending and receiving mail. If I do not get a reply, I am tempted to convert them to "Thunderbird", just to get them off Outlook Express... screw Microsoft when you can. It does not have to be sophisticated, but not just text... html with more or less the same editing functionaly of OE and some form of a spell. Probably do not need a spell check as I have never seen my mother mispell a word. (Not inherited.)

Also, I know IE is bundled with windows, but is OE too. Can I wipe that off the harddrive?

Bob

PS. I appreciate your responses.

Most folk here will tell you they like Thunderbird.

I personally use Foxmail 5.0.8, which is used by a few million people in China. It compares well with Thunderbird.

G-Mail is extremely easy to use, ideal for your folks, and requires no maintenance. In fact, G-Mail doesn't like it when you DO try to do your usual maintenance on it, so some savvy folks don't like it for that reason! But G-Mail automatically sorts mail into threads, very much like the threads in this forum.

It is a web-based system, not the same as Outlook Express. But in effect it pretty well eclipses the big systems. G-Mail handles attachments beautifully. It attracts spam but it also gets rid of spam very very effectively, so you hardly have to think about it.

G-Mail is just plain text. You could attach a Word doc or something, but by itself it doesn't do the pretty backgrounds and flowing waterfalls, if that's your thing.

If you want to try it, you can e-mail me at gcarson with the obvious tail-end added to that. I'll send you an invite.

Foxmail (which has absolutely nothing to do with Firefox) does long, slow downloads, and sometimes delivers corrupted files which won't work. You simply try again; no big deal. It is available from http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english2.htm

Hi Bob!

Yes, OE can be removed from the computer. It's as simple as going to the "Add/Remove Program" and looking down through the list for "Outlook Express" and removing it.

However: I did notice that you're an Earthlink member. Make sure that you perhaps contact them or something beforehand to be absolutely sure that all email clients interface with their particular system, okie?

Make sure that before you delete OE that you get all your account settings written down on paper!!! I can't stress this enough, okie? You'll need these for when you set up your new client.

Now a lot of people here do use Thunderbird. Yet you didn't say exactly how old a computer you folks are using. T-Bird 1.0 can put somewhat of a drain on system resources, the CPU, etc., with the results being that it can slow your old computer down somewhat. The upside is that it uses the GRE engine, which is the same engine that powers the K-Meleon browser, therefore making you less likely to get a virus unless you purposely open an exe, scr, com, zip file wherein viruses hide. But unlike the Trident engine of IE, you just can't catch a virus by simply viewing your email.

There are also a lot of people here who use another client called FoxMail, an excellent, lightweight client which is easy on system resources, etc. The drawback is that out of the box the HTML viewer works on Trident and therefore you are less secure from viruses. FoxMail, however, can be converted over to using the Gecko engine and Alain here can tell you that it's a relatively painless process. I do believe though that doing so breaks certain features of the client.

Then there's Becky International Mail, but that's a client which costs around $25 to $50. It is a good emailer but does work on Trident as well.

And of course there are a plethora of other email clients each with their strengths and weaknesses. I've bench-tested around 34 in the past. But my heart belongs to T-Bird.

Hope this helps?

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
http://eyesonly.no-ip.info/jimmymac/

I forgot to say that you can set your e-mail pref, once you've decided on it, via START >Settings >Control Panel >Internet Options >Programs >E-mail. (There are several ways to get to this location.)

Microsoft is quite friendly now toward the possibility that you don't want to use Outlook Express, which is no longer supported by MS anyway. Therefore, because MS is more obliging, there is less urgency felt by folks to wipe their computer clean of Outlook X.

It is usually done by using "Windows Light", which some folk here use. I doubt that you really want to do that. And I doubt that you want to wipe Outlook Express off your computer. My intuition suggests both techniques would be more than you want to go in for. Simply electing not to use Outlook Express will suit your purposes well. It need not show anywhere obvious on your system.

LOL Carson! We're on again at the same time I see---and we were posting at the same time.

Difference today is: You're probably MUCH more awake than I am. I had originally only intended to read... but when it's an email question... LOL!

Salut mon aminche! Now all I need is my other "aminche" here, Guenter, and it's the Three Muskateers today at the same time! hehe!

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"

Was I wrong about that Outlook Express info?

I think you gave the pathway for XP Carson. Other than that you were right on the money. And I didn't think of that. Great idea my friend! Unless Bob has one of those tiny hard drives he really ought to keep OE around. Someday he may actually need it---and it only takes a few megs (which is truly amazing when compared to the 100 megs of the IE browser!). I kept my OE despite the fact that I have almost never used it. LOL!---the one week I did do testing comparisons of it I got a virus with it! Pretty ironic, huh? Nasty one at that which wiped the drive.

But all you need do is move the shortcut off to someplace inconspicuous, delete all the other shortcuts to it, and you've got something that takes up hardly any space at all. Want to really make room on the drive? Do like I did and remove FrontPage 2001, Works (all the works), Office, and all that crap, and you'll save gigs of space! Then replace it with open source stuff that works just as well and is way smaller.

Wow... I surprise myself today. But great counsel there Carson that you gave! I suspect though he has maybe a 95 or 98 computer where he says it's "old".

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
http://eyesonly.no-ip.info/jimmymac/

Well, at this point, I think I am inclined to experiment with Thunderbird. In terms of resources, it appears to me that Thunderbird and OE are a trade off.

BTW, I did not explain myself. I am doing this on my parent's computer. But, I down load the software from my computer on to a CD.

I don't see why OE would ever be needed and if it did, you could reinstall. However, on my computer, I do not see OE in "add remove software". I can see it program files/outlook. I don't want to remove it on my computer. I use it for the infrequent times I visit newsgroups.

Bob

i'm not sure if you'd like this one, but it seems a little more visually pleasing than some other programs i've seen:

http://www.pocosystems.com/home/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=25

Brian

i.Scribe installs easy, has a simple interface and runs fast. The version for accessing one email account is free. Here's the link: http://www.memecode.com/scribe.php

Jeff

I've used Pegasus Mail for years and I find it very useful and powerful. Accesses several identities, uses POP3/IMAP servers, has preview messages that lay on POP3 server and those big guns can be deleted without downloading. Pmail is far better than outlook express.
Yours
Misiek

Another good email client oIdor computers IMO is Forte Agent. It is shareware so you have to pay a few bubks if you keep it but it requires few system resources and will run fine on older computers, even 486's.

]http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php

It is also a very good newsreader, and I have used it for both newsgroups from my ISP's NNTP server and for email. It's text only.

I used to run it just fine on a P150 with only 32 MB of RAM running Windows 95

Let me play devils advocate and put a word in for OE. I have tried many of the mail apps mentioned above, and then some more. But OE is free, it's everywhere, wheighs only a couple of MB and is suprisingly robust for M$ hatchling. Needless to say, I am still using OE...

There are clever contraptions for the e-mail hobbyist and some apps that open wild and wacky paths away from reason and safety. I second the choice of Foxmail as a second best and would like to mention Barca/Pocomail as a buggy third (should it be more stable and bug free it could easily became number 1). Pimmy and Popcorn also rank very high on a class of their own.

It is true there are some big downsides for the trusting OE user, mainly in the security field and the lack of certain no-brain options like saving attachments. But a few simple rules make it a breeze to use:

1) kill the preview of messages, never use it, disable it because it comes enabled by default and if you ever see it shoot it on sight -- its the main culprit of OE insecurities

2) never allow OE to directly open any atachments appart from those shown inline (text & images), save them first to your desktop which will ring the bells of your resident anti-virus (You do have one, don't you?) should there be something fishy about it;

3) As soon as you start using OE, go to the Tools menu, select Accounts and then the Maintenance tab and move the Store Folder from the present location somewhere into your My Documents folder (like a Mail subfolder) for easy backup of your mail and mailing settings (You should/could do the same with your Favorites folder by way of the Powertoys -- Google for them).

If you take this simple measures you could end with ten year old messages in your OE like I do... :-D

Cheers, people.

Ha ha, Midas, you are very brave to post that! Well, perhaps here in this extra-special K-M forum, where people seem refreshingly open-minded, it can be done! Good for you!

Seeing as you had the guts to defend the villain of the group, I'll offer my support. In fact, although Microsoft did this to keep everything in the family, it remains true that Word will work beautifully with Outlook X, and that is a convenience as well. You can format anything you wish in Word, and send it via Outlook Express without ever leaving Word.

I think Foxmail makes a pretty good attempt to carry from Word as well. But MS hjas it pretty well sewn up for themselves.

I've never had a virus or anything else from Outlook X. I do the things you mention. And I really don't use Outlook Express much at all, but I have a few friends who do. Their computers seem quite okay; no horrible things happening to them.

I hate to see M$ bashing efforts misdirected... ;-)

Midis is right about that preview pane in OE. Get rid of it. My AVG anti-virus checks my mail before it gets to my inbox in OE. The big plus for OE - it is there - it is free - and it works. I do think I will implement the suggestion about the store folder.

Quote
JamesD
Midas is right about that preview pane in OE. Get rid of it. My AVG anti-virus checks my mail before it gets to my inbox in OE. The big plus for OE - it is there - it is free - and it works. I do think I will implement the suggestion about the store folder.

I think I can speak for Midas on this, as he's still using OE.

One of the things most people don't realize -- I know I didn't -- is that message export from OE is as simple as selecting messages and dragging them out of OE window and dropping them into whichever folder one fancies. Great way to backup!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2008 11:48PM by foobarly.

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