Best Windows mail client for use with Gmail?

[India Four Two]

I've just discovered that a friend of mine logs in to Gmail's website every time he wants to look at his mail.

I have suggested that he get a program for his Windows computer.

I am a Mac user and have no experience of Windows email clients. Does anyone have any recommendations?

[jimtherev]

Any number - but Mozilla's Thunderbird is free, easy to use, and tweakable once you get used to it.

[wanabee777]

I've had good success with Windows Live Mail.

[Bushfiva]

If your friend is happy with the web browser, why not stick with it? Exactly the same experience via any browser and any computer, anywhere on the planet.

[India Four Two]

Bushfiva,

Yours is a valid point, but I should clarify why I asked the question. My friend frequently travels internationally and uses email for business. I suggested to him that it would be more convenient to have all his email on his laptop, rather than having to go to a website.

Jim and w777,
Thanks for the suggestions.

I've seen some good reviews for Mailbird. Does anyone have any experience with this?

[ExSp33db1rd]

I use Microsoft Office - Outlook. I used to use Outlook Express, which I was very happy with, but that was denied me when moving to Windows h'eight, I was stuck with Windows Live Mail, but was then offered a free disc of Office at a computer exhibition, where I appeared to know more about Windows h'eight than the young lady demonstrating it ( !!! ) As a reward for helping her out of a hole that she had dug for herself her boss gave me an Office disc, and I moved to Outlook. I would prefer to be back with Outlook Express, but Bill Gates has denied me.

[BEagle]

ExSp33db1rd, I agree. Before I had to convert to Windows 7, Outlook Express was ideal. Whereas Windows Live Mail was abysmal - I hated it. As I had Office installed, I started using Outlook instead - that's the real Outloook, not the confusingly named Outlook.com, which is what Micro$oft now terms Hotmail.

Bill Gates and his cronies have killed off a number of useful programs, such as Outlook Express, Photo Editor and AutoRoute. Even the replacement for Photo Editor, Microsoft Office Picture Manager has been removed from the latest (frankly hideous) versions of Office....

As for all that 'cloud based' hippy village cr@p which requires users to be online to use it.......:mad:

But at least Windows 10 isn't as dire as Windows 8 or 8.1, I suppose.

[pax britanica]

Beagle

I have Windows 7 and am constantly bugged about 'upgrading' to Win10 , what s your view on that if you don't mind me asking.

I k Express to Live mail because I use btinternet.com email and that is run by Yahoo who just stopped supporting Outlook Express.

The problem with all the outlook and Windows mail products is the near impossibility of creating a proper off line archive -why this should be so difficult for what for many is the most important part of their digital world is beyond me. It just shows that all these West Coast airheads really don't live in the real (simple and proven is good) world and we should all be very thankful they don't design airliners with their get it out their and let the users debug it philosophy

[BEagle]

I've no intention of installing Windows 10 on my primary computer, because there's no guarantee that certain programs (e.g. AutoRoute) will run on Windows 10. So the primary system is remaining firmly with Windows 7.

My back-up computer was running on Windows 8.1 until Windows 10 cuckoo'd its way onto the computer without my consent whilst I was away. It works OK, but I still prefer Windows 7 - and it took me a long time to disable most of Micro$oft's privacy-invading options which are 'on' by default.

if you've got Windows 7, I would stick with that. If you've got Windows 8 or 8.1, then I'd change to Windows 10. It installed quite readily and didn't lose any of my desktop icons or saved documents. But I had to download the Win10 driver for my Netgear 5 GHz WLAN adapter.

I archive certain Outlook e-mails to a USB stick, but ever since my Hotmail address was spammed and my Hotmail address book infiltrated, I wouldn't trust Windows Live Mail or other Seattle hippy-village 'cloudy' systems further than I could smell them!

[vulcanised]

I have been using SRWare Iron (basic Chrome) with gmail for some time now and it works well as long as you keep an eye on the spam folder.

[Keef]

Thunderbird works fine with Gmail (and much else) for me.

If you use POP, then all the mail downloads to your PC - you can opt to have it download to more than one device with some tweaking.

IMAP will leave it on the server - and download to the PC as well, if you set it up that way.

Outlook Express: worked well till it went hiccup, then lost ALL my mail, address book, etc. That (early) version stored everything in one compressed file. One hiccup, and it was all gone. I was NOT amused.

[ExSp33db1rd]

I archive certain Outlook e-mails to a USB stick,

How do you do that ? I've long bemoaned the fact that I can't "easily" just send all my Inbox to a CD, or USB for long term storage before wiping them completely off my computer. I've been given a few suggestions, but all needed to move each e-mail one at a time - Life's too short. I'd like to select "All" and then instead of "Delete All" which one can do, just transfer "All" to another storage device. Doesn't seem possible - unless you know better ? (Please !)

I now keep ones that I really think I might want to refer to again in a "Keep" folder, then wipe out my Inbox every two or three weeks, but I do occasionally delete something that I look for later. ( Slight thread drift .....Usual problem, the minute one throws something away from the garage ( or Shed ! ) one needs it urgently, which is why we have two houses, a shed, and a Hangar full of rubbish that we will never need again ( never say never ) and which is preventing us moving nearer to town with no necessity for a garden or car. Just what does one do with all the stuff ?)

Also - all my Group e-mails are no longer accepted by my Outlook e-mail system, they were by Outlook Express but not now, although they are still shown as a "Group" in Contacts (used to be Windows Address Book ) I now send my group e-mails to one of the group who still has the ability to select all the various e-mail addresses with one keystroke, but I can't anymore.

WTF do they have to keep "changing" everything !

[BEagle]

ExSp33db1rd wrote: How do you do that ? I've long bemoaned the fact that I can't "easily" just send all my Inbox to a CD, or USB for long term storage before wiping them completely off my computer. I've been given a few suggestions, but all needed to move each e-mail one at a time - Life's too short. I'd like to select "All" and then instead of "Delete All" which one can do, just transfer "All" to another storage device. Doesn't seem possible - unless you know better ? (Please !)

All I do is:

1. Create a new 'archive' folder on the desktop.
2. Move the Outlook page edge so that I can see both the e-mail lists and the new folder.
3. Select the e-mail folder of interest.
4. Left click on the e-mail title I want to archive, then 'drag' the highlight to the folder.
5. If I want to archive several selected e-mails at the same time, press 'Ctrl' at the same time as left clicking. When they're highlighted, just drag one of the highlighted e-mails to the folder and all the others will follow.
6. If I want to archive all the e-mails listed in the folder between 2 e-mails of interest, press 'Shift' and left click the 2 e-mails in turn; all the e-mails between will then be highlighted. Then just drag one of the highlighted e-mails to the 'archive' folder.
7. When I'm happy with the archive folder, I just copy it to a USB stick.

The actions above won't delete your e-mails from Outlook, so you'll still need to delete them if you don't want them left on your computer. The only drawback is that the 'archive' folder won't show the original e-mail date in the list - all items are shown with the date of archiving.

Geeks might have slicker ways, but I find my method intuitive and without risk.

[ExSp33db1rd]

BEagle .. Thanks, I'll give it a go.

ExS.