Windows Mail being replaced by Windows Outlook

[Hipper]

..... at the end of the year apparently.

I tried Outlook and got annoyed with the advert that looks like an e-mail. Mail works well for me.

All I want is to be able to send and receive a few e-mails and manage an address book securely. And no adverts. I don't use things like the calendar.

Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative. I've looked about and there's a free app called Thunderbird? Or does 'free' equal adverts?

[bfcjg]

Thunderbird is OK, however there are strings attached

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[ICL]

Logged in just to ‘like’ the above! Excellent work

[bfcjg]

Yes I thought it was rather FAB.
I'll stop now I'm boring myself

[Paul Waine]

..... at the end of the year apparently.

I tried Outlook and got annoyed with the advert that looks like an e-mail. Mail works well for me.

All I want is to be able to send and receive a few e-mails and manage an address book securely. And no adverts. I don't use things like the calendar.

Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative. I've looked about and there's a free app called Thunderbird? Or does 'free' equal adverts?

Outlook has been MS's email system for many years, either 1990, 1996 or 1997 depending how you accessed it. I've never seen any adverts with Outlook. Possibly it's the difference between including it in a subscription or using it for free.

[CoolClaret]

If anyone’s looking for an email alternative - try www.hey.com

It costs but that means they don’t sell your data on. Cool way to do email, can be used for business domain names as well etc

[Funkydrummer]

I've used Outlook since 2017 without any problems. Sure, an advert appears every
now and again in the inbox but it's not intrusive and is easily deleted with a swipe !

One advantage if you use "one drive" for storeage is that they are linked automatically.
Other applications/websites populate the diary for you eg Amazon deliveries and footy
fixtures.

Maybe it's the same for other accounts but I don't use any other so can't speak about that.

Hope this helps a bit.

[whiffa]

In my personal experience I just pick up a cheap license for Office 2021 Pro Plus online from one of those "dodgy" websites and it's worked a treat. Save a fortune on paying for the Subscription for 365. Means you can use full Outlook.

The new free Outlook replacing Windows Mail will just be a simplified web version, with limited usability like Windows Mail.

Thunderbird is fairly outdated for now. Having worked with all three frequently, I'd personally always pay a little bit for the right product, even if it is a workaround. ^^

[SalisburyClaret]

I would respectfully suggest getting a Mac

[Bullabill]

Thunderbird is fairly outdated for now.

Tell us more. My Thunderbird is frequently updated so I assume it's current.

[whiffa]

Tell us more. My Thunderbird is frequently updated so I assume it's current.

The main two issues I've noticed more frequently are:

- Less support for automatic server input, ie IMAP settings for known providers no longer auto-inputting when adding new accounts
- More difficult to transfer existing mail accounts to new machines from one Thunderbird account to another, having to use third party software such as MozBackup to do the transfers instead - which in itself is an outdated software.

Just my opinion though, once set-up and running I've found Thunderbird to be as good as Outlook for most uses.

[Hipper]

I've used Outlook now for a bit and agree the adverts are not intrusive.

However I'm finding some annoying issues which don't seem to have a solution - doubly annoying as you can end up spending hours looking for one.

1. Importing my address book. It seems Mail stores these in the Cloud and they are not accessible (i.e. they are not stored on a file on my PC). All I can do is add them as I go along whilst having to list them in a file somewhere.

2. I can't read old e-mails saved from Mail (in EML format) with Outlook. When I click on them it opens Outlook's Calendar. I've got Mail back to read them but I'm not sure how long that will last. I've downloaded a free app (called EML Opener) that can read them now so I am prepared for the loss of Mail.

3. Saving e-mails to a folder on my PC. When I do this it saves them, in EML format, to my Download file. I can't choose to put them anywhere else. Of course I can move them later. But, it's still in EML format and still won't open in Outlook. They do open in Mail.

4. Couple 2 and 3 and it suggests that maybe Outlook can read EML files but there is some impediment to me reading them. I've seen a hint this might be a date factor - my saved e-mails are too old - but if so I can't find a way to adjust any dates.

The Outlook 'Help' pages seem pretty useless and online I can't seem to ask the right question to find an answer. Currently I've asked the Microsoft Community some of these points but I don't hold out much hope.

Why should it be so difficult to move from one app to another when MS suggest it?