"Managing" Outlook vs Outlook Express

[Ancient Observer]

XP 3. fully updated.
Office on the pc, but Outlook not used.
Outlook Express as main e-mail.

I am puzzled and frustrated......

I use Outlook Express as my main e-mail. However, whenever I am on a website, and click on an e-mail, my pc starts up Outlook. Whilst I have used Outlook in the past on other machines, for my current usage, it is a sledgehammer, so I want to use Express.
I've gone in to Outlook/Tools/Options/Make Outlook Express the Default Messaging prog., but as soon as I close the Options, the default reverts to Outlook.
So I go in to Outlook/Options/Other, and make sure that the "Make Outlook the default" box is not ticked. It is not.
In Control Panel/Internet Options/Programs Outlook Express is set as the E-mail prog., and there doesn't seem to be anything helpful in Control Panel/Mail.

I must be missing something....................HELP! Please.
AO

[Parapunter]

Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Set Program Access and Defaults. . That should set you straight.

If that's no good (I'm doing this from memory as my boxes are all win7 now), have a look here: Setting the Default Email Client in Windows XP

Now get with the 21st century & install win 7, ditch that bitter Arsene & come to the mighty 'Arry for without a path to enlightnement, that is far as I am prepared to assist a deluded Gooner.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Also, OE is a pox on the bottom of humanity. Use proper Outlook

[Parapunter]

Spoken like a true corporate Mike.

Outlook is monstrous bloatware for single users, great for whopping networks where evil admins want to send 200 people emails warning them their mailboxes are full.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by Parapunter

Spoken like a true corporate Mike.

Outlook is monstrous bloatware for single users, great for whopping networks where evil admins want to send 200 people emails warning them their mailboxes are full.

Outlook 2010 is actually quite nice compared to 2007 (and better than 2003 as well). My main beef with OE is it's handling (or not) of larger mailboxes, and it's utterly woeful backup and disaster recovery issues.

Incidentally, 200 users is miniscule

Anyway, if you're wedded to POP then grab an early copy of Eudora, before Qualcomm followed MS's lead for bloatware. Light, fast, reliable, and so easy to troubleshoot I used to support 800 users on a site using that as only a quarter of my job function

[Parapunter]

Damned wireless keyboard, I typed 2000! WLM over here, which is...unimpressive.

[P.Pilcher]

For some time I have been getting fed up with Outlook for several reasons including those stated above - althouth I am using Outlook 2002. Can anybody tell me where to get an early copy of Eudora as recommended above?

P.P.

[Parapunter]

Old Eudora Installers

[Ancient Observer]

Para,
thank you. That worked.
Mike.
When I worked in inter-galactic mega corporations, Outlook was fine. However, at home a paper phone book, a paper diary and little old Outlook express along with a clever little Samsung phone work fine. (Other than Kies, but that is a different story).
Outlook is a sledgehammer for my e-mailing needs.

As for Win 7, I'll let the early adopters find out all the issues, and move over to it just as win 8 comes out.



Para - you need to remember that 'Arry stood on the Northbank terraces as a kid, and once a Gooner, always a Gooner.

[P.Pilcher]

Thanks parapunter

P.P.

[M.Mouse]

As for Win 7, I'll let the early adopters find out all the issues...

I downloaded the Release Candidate of W7 and made my PC dual boot with XP SP3. I actually never used XP again.

Personally I have found one or two very minor issues with W7, it works, it is quick, it is robust and the layout is far superior when compared with earlier MS Operating Systems.

I like it.

[hellsbrink]

Hear hear, M. Mouse, I went RC on Win 7 and set up a triple boot on my old PC (7, XPSP3 and Linux) and it wasn't long before I was using 7 only. Now all 3 puters, as you know from my networking issue earlier, are 7, all run smooth and that is even this Packard Bell netbook (1.6Ghz Intel Atom processor, 1Gb ram, Intel mobile graphic) which is going faster than it did under XP SP3.

7 is everything Vista should have been

[Mr Optimistic]

Mike-B

Two questions: in your opinion is windows firewall sufficient for home computers without third party stuff (windows xp & 7 with banking stuff), and is outlook 2010 really ok for home use (including reading from web clients ) ? Interested as I have become a creature of habit and perhaps could do with re-think.

[Saab Dastard]

My main beef with OE is it's handling (or not) of larger mailboxes, and it's utterly woeful backup and disaster recovery issues.

Backup of OE is very simple, just backup the *.dbx files. OK, you have to find and backup the address book separately, as it's the "Windows address book" , but otherwise it's a doddle.

I have never had a problem in 10 years with restoring OE folders back from copies. Just import them into the new or existing identity.

As for large mailboxes - well as long as you keep the inbox and sent items folders below a GB (including subfolders), you are fine. My total is currently 2.4 GB across 89 folders without any problems, but both Sent Items and Inbox are only a few MB each.

is outlook 2010 really ok for home use (including reading from web clients )

I use the full Outlook 2007 at work, and find the functionality very useful indeed - I couldn't function without calendar and tasks - but I simply don't need that at home. But everyone's needs, likes and preferences are different, so make up your own mind.

I'm not sure what you mean by "reading from web clients", but there's no problem in pulling down your internet mail into Outlook - or any other POP3 / IMAP client for that matter.

If you are thinking of Outlook Web Access, that's a different concept altogether - normally for viewing your corporate email via a web browser.

There seem to be some quite strong views here about Windows Firewall versus 3rd party firewalls, and I'm not really going to comment further than to just say don't run more than one! Personally I think it is more important to have good AV and not to run as Administrator unless you actually need to.

SD

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by Mr Optimistic

Two questions: in your opinion is windows firewall sufficient for home computers without third party stuff (windows xp & 7 with banking stuff), and is outlook 2010 really ok for home use (including reading from web clients ) ? Interested as I have become a creature of habit and perhaps could do with re-think.

Saab's answered this above. However for my opinion, yes Windows Firewall is what all my customers use and none have ever had need of another (and i'm not constantly plagued with difficult issues to troubleshoot via the use of another firewall, as is usually the case with machines brought to me via friends and family). Outlook 2010 is fine for use in both home and business scenarios, however it may be overkill for POP usage as the main benefit I mentioned was using it against Exchange servers (where previous versions of Outlook only allowed the local offline caching of the main mailbox, and 2010 allows it for all connected mailboxes - making remote usage against a multiple mailbox scenario considerably speedier and more reliable). For home POP/IMAP usage, consider Eudora (although you may wish to do your own investigations against whether Windows 7's network stack is compatible with the earlier versions of Eudora if you choose to go that way - I must confess i've not used it since approx 2002)

[Mr Optimistic]

Ta

Currently just use the email client with Opera but the wife thinks everything except OE is a communist trick. Hope to convert her, but failing that maybe I can convince her to ditch OE

[Gertrude the Wombat]

maybe I can convince her to ditch OE

Has anyone found a replacement yet?

That can

- import gigabytes of OE email history
- integrate mail and news
- not lose any of the other useful features of OE

?

[Saab Dastard]

Has anyone found a replacement yet?

That can

- import gigabytes of OE email history
- integrate mail and news
- not lose any of the other useful features of OE

Well Outlook can do the first and I'm struggling to think of any "useful features" of OE other than being a news reader as well. It doesn't even have a calendar for a start! OK, you can switch identities without restarting OE - I don't think you can achieve quite the same without restarting Outlook - at least not as a POP3 / IMAP client.

Having said that, the full Outlook client is a paid-for product not bundled like OE, so if you are comparing OE to free email clients you may have a point - I'm afraid I don't have any knowledge of free alternatives.

But then again, many people have a version of MS Office that includes Outlook, so it is effectively free for them.

I will shortly be moving home PCs over to Win 7 & Office 2010, and I suspect that I will use Outlook 2010 in preference to the OE replacement - now that really is, I hear,

a pox on the bottom of humanity

SD

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I've got Outlook but I don't use it because you've got to run OE anyway if you want a news client so why not use OE for email as well?

Trouble is OE gets harder and harder to run on newer versions of Windows.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by Gertrude the Wombat

I've got Outlook but I don't use it because you've got to run OE anyway if you want a news client

Just use a different news client. You don't have to run OE for news. Any NNTP client would do (and there are a multitude better than OE).