Windows 7 - E-Mail Programs

My new Toshiba Laptop comes with Windows 7. Likewise, I purchased and
installed Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook for an e-mail program.
However, Windows 7 apparently allows one to download Windows Live Mail for
another related e-mail application. The bottom lines is, which is better?
Should I use Outlook or Windows Live Mail? Or perhaps both? Likewise, why
would one be better over another?

In addition, what is the best way to configure whatever e-mail program I
choose on my new computer, and how can I transfer my e-mail addresses over
from my old computer using Windows Vista to this new one?

Thanks,
John

On 9/21/2011 7:28 AM, John Sisker wrote:
> My new Toshiba Laptop comes with Windows 7. Likewise, I purchased and
> installed Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook for an e-mail
> program. However, Windows 7 apparently allows one to download Windows
> Live Mail for another related e-mail application. The bottom lines is,
> which is better? Should I use Outlook or Windows Live Mail? Or perhaps
> both? Likewise, why would one be better over another?
>
> In addition, what is the best way to configure whatever e-mail program I
> choose on my new computer, and how can I transfer my e-mail addresses
> over from my old computer using Windows Vista to this new one?
>
Use ThunderBird it's free and a lot better than Outlook for personal
usage. Outlook in MS office is more suited for corporate and not home
usage. WLM I have never used it.

On 21 Sep 2011, "John Sisker" <> wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

> My new Toshiba Laptop comes with Windows 7. Likewise, I purchased
> and installed Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook for an
> e-mail program. However, Windows 7 apparently allows one to
> download Windows Live Mail for another related e-mail application.
> The bottom lines is, which is better? Should I use Outlook or
> Windows Live Mail? Or perhaps both? Likewise, why would one be
> better over another?

The better one in a case like this is the one you prefer. Try them
both and decide for yourself.

Most people will probably say that Outlook is better. It's got a lot
of features, maybe more than you need. It's really intended to be a
client for a corporate MS Exchange email system, but it can do POP
and IMAP as well. It includes a full-featured calendar component
that you might find useful.

Windows Live Mail is simpler and has less features, but its email
features are decent and may be good enough for your purposes. It
also includes a newsgroup reader... but that feature is severely
broken in the most recent version (WLM2011, a.k.a. version 15.) You
should avoid it. The previous version, WLM2009, is still floating
around the 'net.

> In addition, what is the best way to configure whatever e-mail
> program I choose on my new computer,

Read the instructions. Every program is different.

> and how can I transfer my e-mail addresses over from my old
> computer using Windows Vista to this new one?

Export the contact list from your old program, whatever that is,
then import it to your new program, whatever that is. The export and
import formats depend on what email programs you use.

On Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:13:12 -0400, Nil wrote:

> The better one in a case like this is the one you prefer. Try them both
> and decide for yourself.

In this case configure the 'trial' email clients to leave a copy of your
emails on the server so you can retrieve them later if needed...

On Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:13:12 -0400, Nil wrote:

> The better one in a case like this is the one you prefer. Try them both
> and decide for yourself.

In this case configure the 'trial' email clients to leave a copy of your
emails on the server so you can retrieve them later if needed...

On 9/21/2011 6:28 AM, John Sisker wrote:
> My new Toshiba Laptop comes with Windows 7. Likewise, I purchased and
> installed Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook for an e-mail
> program. However, Windows 7 apparently allows one to download Windows
> Live Mail for another related e-mail application. The bottom lines is,
> which is better? Should I use Outlook or Windows Live Mail? Or perhaps
> both? Likewise, why would one be better over another?

Not knowing your preferences on how you read your email suggesting one
over the other would just be a best guess. The best thing I could
recommend is that you try each one and decide for yourself which one you
like. With that said, Outlook is geared more for Corporate and business
users and Windows Live Mail is more for home users.

> In addition, what is the best way to configure whatever e-mail program I
> choose on my new computer, and how can I transfer my e-mail addresses
> over from my old computer using Windows Vista to this new one?

You could use this program called Static E-Mail Backup which is
available here:

http://www.staticbackup.com/products.php

There are several versions, one for each individual email program that
it works with, and one that encompasses all of them. It's not free, but
there is a trial period which would be enough for you to make a backup
on your old PC, then restore it on the new PC.


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Thunderbird 6.0.2
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 8:56:27 AM

On Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:28:25 -0700, "John Sisker"
<> wrote:

> My new Toshiba Laptop comes with Windows 7. Likewise, I purchased and
> installed Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook for an e-mail program.
> However, Windows 7 apparently allows one to download Windows Live Mail for
> another related e-mail application. The bottom lines is, which is better?
> Should I use Outlook or Windows Live Mail? Or perhaps both? Likewise, why
> would one be better over another?


It's entirely a matter of taste, but in my view, Outlook is very much
better than Windows Live Mail. In fact, almost *every* other e-mail
program is better than Windows Live Mail. I think Windows Live Mail is
about the worst choice available.

And note that those are not your only two choices. There are many
other e-mails that are available and will run under Windows 7, some
free and others that are inexpensive.

So here's my advice: ignore my opinion and everyone else's opinion.
Try several e-mail programs and choose the one *you* like best.

In article <irydnegsG8T-V->,
says...
>
> My new Toshiba Laptop comes with Windows 7. Likewise, I purchased and
> installed Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook for an e-mail program.
> However, Windows 7 apparently allows one to download Windows Live Mail for
> another related e-mail application. The bottom lines is, which is better?
> Should I use Outlook or Windows Live Mail? Or perhaps both? Likewise, why
> would one be better over another?
>
> In addition, what is the best way to configure whatever e-mail program I
> choose on my new computer, and how can I transfer my e-mail addresses over
> from my old computer using Windows Vista to this new one?
>
> Thanks,
> John

If you want a very rich set of features and options, including
integration with other Ofice programs (e.g. for mail merge), pick
Outlook. If you prefer simplicity, Windows Live Mail is fine (and much
more secure than Outlook Express was). I'll always use Outlook for
email. I've just stopped using WLM for newsgroups as the latest version
doesn't have a way of marking quoted passages in newsgroups (just as
Gravity has automatically added "> " at the beginning of each line
above). This may be fixed in a subsequent release, although MS have
lost interest in newsgroups - a bad move in my view. I used Thunderbird
for newsgroups for a while, but found it buggy. While I've used one
program for email and another for news, I think it would be eccentric to
use more than one program for email unless you had some reason I can't
think of!

If you want to transfer your contacts, look for "file/export" options in
whatever you're using now, and corresponding "import" options in the one
you want to move to.

If you want to transfer email accounts, you often can't! Outlook could
save accounts as *.iaf files, and versions of (full) Outlook up to 2002
(I think) could, but this useful facility has been removed from Outlook
since then. You can import and export between OE, WLM and Outlook, but
this is a direct process without using intermediate files. I can't
understand why MS removed this useful feature.

slipstick.com is a useful resource for all things Outlook.

--

Phil, London

I want to thank all who replied and for the candid but expert advice. So
far, it is looking like Outlook would be the better choice for me. If it
makes any difference, in the past I had used Outlook Express, which I assume
was a rather stripped down version of Outlook anyway. However, when I got
Windows Vista, I ended up with Windows Mail. Yet, from my understanding,
neither the old Outlook/Outlook Express or Windows Mail is compatible with
the new Windows Live Mail.

Thanks,
John

On 9/21/2011 5:07 AM, Big Steel wrote:

> Use ThunderBird it's free and a lot better than Outlook for personal
> usage. Outlook in MS office is more suited for corporate and not home
> usage. WLM I have never used it.

I second that as I just switched to Thunderbird (TB) from WLM 2011. The
one thing I like in MS Mail/ News reader clients that TB doesn't offer
is the automatic marking of all news messages read when you switch from
one news group to another. I wish TB added that capability in some
future update.