The Email Client

Date: August 22, 2007
Time: at 11:12 pm
Posted in: in email, microsoft, windows
Comments: Comments (0)

For the past two weeks, I’ve been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my email client. I was giving it a try to see if it was a viable (and productive) option to move permanently to it, away from my regular usage of Mozilla Tunderbir

While I was using it, I found a good number of things I liked about it: how it was so simple and straightforward, yet got the job done brilliantly. On the other hand, I did find a few annoyances as well.

However, in the end, it seems the good significantly outweighs the bad. Windows Live Mail is a solid product. It has a clean and sleek design, and its features offer everything I need for desktop email and more

Congratulations Windows Live Mail, you’ve won this geek over.

Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail

Date: August 20, 2007
Time: at 11:52 pm
Posted in: in email, microsoft, software
Comments: Comments (2)

For those who may not have read my previous blog posts, over the past 12 days I have been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my desktop email client needs. I normally use Mozilla Thunderbird. So far, the experience has been pleasant, but it isn’t without its annoyances. I’ve already posted my Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thudnerbird. Here is my top 10 for Live Mail:

  1. UI inconsistency - When I go into Options or open a dialog/properties box, I’m expecting it to have the same clean look the regular interface has. But for some reason it reminds me of Windows 95. And when I add a new contact, why does the color scheme suddenly change?
  2. For the love of God, don’t make me have to go into the message properties just to view the full headers. And when I get there, I don’t want to have to use the horizontal scrollbar in order to read it. Can I please just Right Click -> View Sorce?
  3. As a part of the Windows Live services, Microsoft also offers Windows Live Writer, which allows you to post content to Wordpress, Movable Type, Live Spaces, Blogger, etc, all in one desktop client. But in their Windows Live Mail, why does the “Blog” option only allow you to use Live Spaces? That’s hypocritical–change it.
  4. Why isn’t there a “Print” label next to the button? Even though it’s obvious, it’s inconsistent.
  5. The searching options, while simple, aren’t customizable enough. I can’t search just in subjects or just in the body.
  6. I really don’t get the point of the “Storage folders” section being present by default. If I want to store something other than in the standard drafts, I’ll create my own folder for that purpose.
  7. When I right click the title bar, the standard menu bar shows up. But when I click off of the secondary click dropdown, the menu bar disappears. Is this a bug, or is it a feature that’s not working properly? I’d prefer it not to show up at all…
  8. I doubt there’s legal issues involved, so why can’t I import email/settings from a Thunderbird profile? Here I am thinking about switching, and I wouldn’t even have the option to import.
  9. There’s a big difference between email security, and junk email. Just because an advertisement comes in, it doesn’t mean it’s a fraud or trying to send you a virus. Please give Junk Email it’s own option in the Tools menu.

In a few days, I’ll make my final decision as to whether I’ll be staying with Windows Live Mail or going back to Thunderbird. I’m still kind of torn between the two.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, please leave a comment, or Ask Me!

Update: It seems in posting this the code got screwed up and I lost one of my points. What’s odd is I can’t remember what it was, so sorry for there only being 9 … but there were originally 10, I promise.

Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thunderbird

Date: August 20, 2007
Time: at 12:39 pm
Posted in: in email, software
Comments: Comments (4)

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mozilla Thunderbird as a desktop email client. In my opinion, it’s better than Microsoft’s Outlook in terms of ease of use, stability, and simplicity. Also, configuring account settings is much more intuitive and actually more powerful. It’s also certainly better than Microsoft’s Outlook Express. But regardless, I’ve had my fair share of annoyances with the client. Here I’ll point out a few of them:

  1. The UI is poorly designed. Don’t get me wrong, the UI is workable and allows you to configure lots of things, but quite simply, it’s ugly to look at. No matter what theme you install, the basic design is still there, and it’s not easily navigable.
  2. The message rules dialog box is too bloated. You have to click way too many times and customize way too many things in order for you to get it to do exactly what it is you want it to do. I hate to say it, but Outlook (and Windows Live Mail) have much better message rule controls.
  3. When I’m deleting emails one-by-one starting from the bottom and going up, if I click to skip over an email, the next one in line when deleted is the one below. This on many occasions has caused me to delete the very email I wanted to skip. Definitely a “bug.”
  4. Thunderbird is literally in lockdown mode while downloading new messages. One of my email accounts I can get anywhere up to 400-700 messages per day (mostly spam). I have plenty of CPU utilization and RAM left, but when I’m downloading all these messages, why does the entire application slow to a crawl? I want to read some of that email as it’s coming in, dangit!
  5. Junk mail - this is a big one. When I first started using Thunderbird, I was impressed with how acurate the junk mail filters were and how quickly it learned. But after junking out probably close to 50,000 emails, why exactly do I still get the exact same email over and over again? Why hasn’t it learned? I was impressed that Windows Live Mail actually caught those silly USNMA messages right off the bat.
  6. The address book is horrible. I can’t describe how terribly it’s designed. Now I realize why I’ve never used address book features in mail clients…
  7. And why the heck is the address book button in the tob bar? That’s a freaking control bar, not an “access the secondary features” bar. Everything else up there controls the email or emails in general. It should not be there.
  8. All of a sudden, my mail filters stopped working at some point. This was almost a year ago, and I still haven’t fixed them for the sole purpose of I had way too many and it would take up way too much of my time. Why, exactly did these just suddenly stop working?
  9. When Thunderbird goes to import mail from Outlook Express or Outlook, can it please at least warn the user that some things may not be copied correctly (ie, message filters?). And why can’t I import News/Blogs, Mail, and settings all at the same time?
  10. What the heck is the purpose of the “Go” menu option sitting on its own? It’s pointless. If it must be present, please combine it with the View menu like in every other email client…

So there you have it. I’m doing this in combination with my previous blog about how I was seriously considering switching permanently to Windows Live Mail for my desktop email needs. To be fair, my next entry will be The Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail.

Windows Live Mail - The Exclusive Trial

Date: August 8, 2007
Time: at 5:34 pm
Posted in: in email, internet, microsoft, windows vista
Comments: Comments (1)

For the past few years, mid 2003 or so, I have used Mozilla Thunderbird for my desktop email needs. At the time I had various @hotmail.com and @msn.com email addresses, so I used the webbased client for these. So you could say I used Thunderbird almost exclusively for my email ever since version 0.1. Previously, the only viable basic desktop email option previous to Thunderbird was Microsoft’s Outlook Express, or the full Outlook if you had Microsoft Office. However, I didn’t need the address books. I didn’t need the calendar. All I needed was a desktop application to control my mail. So ever since I Windows 98, I ran Outlook Express.

Very recently, along with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft announced that Hotmail and MSN email would be incorporated with their Windows Live services. In May of 2007, Windows Live Hotmail went live, sporting a brand new AJAX interface and new options.

Now, Microsoft in currently in development for the replacement for Outlook Express (for XP) and Windows Mail (for Vista), which is simply called Windows Live Mail. I was introduced to it a few weeks ago and thought I’d download and try it out. So far, I’m impressed with it’s performance and simplicity, and also the UI is massively improved from either Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

I have decided to give Windows Live Mail a two week exclusive trial. I wanted something that’s simple and effective, but that had a nice UI. Unfortunately, Thunderbird covered the simple and effective part, but the UI is in desperate need of improvement. I won’t even open Thunderbird once to check my email during this period. No matter what frustrations I encounter, I’ll only use Windows Live Mail.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for email clients for Windows?

As always, if you have a question, be sure to Ask Me.