Thunderbird as a replacement to Outlook

Homer712 said:

I've used TB in the past and it always worked well, but the GUI left a bit to be desired (I found it rather busy). The good thing about TB is that it easily adapts to storing your "local folders" on Dropbox. What that means (at least to me) is that I can access all my local folders on my Windows laptop, then, while working on my iMac the same folders are available via Dropbox. So as far and all my local email storage, it stays the same no matter which platform I'm on.

Now, I did say I used TB in the past. "Past" being the operative word. I switched a few years back to an email client called Postbox. It's available for both the Windows and Apple platform, and, being based on TB, uses the same format for all local email storage, so you can go from TB to Postbox and back without any conversion needed whatsoever. You just point (in the settings of both programs) the client to the local email storage location and it's done. If you give it a try, you'll see that the Postbox folks did a great job cleaning up the GUI of TB. I find it very clean and efficient. And again (don't know if you're into any Apple products so this may not apply) the real beauty is that if I took a screenshot of Postbox on both platforms, you'd be hard pressed to say which is which.

The GUI looks better than Outlook for me, it is al in how you configure it.

It's all a matter of personal layout preferences. Here's mine. Only thing I hid was my email account name. Most of everything is configurable. I like dark theme because of of my eyes. I think they are older than me!

bpatters69 said:

Hi Samuria,

Yes, I tried the direct import but it said:

Attachment 331714

I think its because I have Outlook installed on my D drive vs the C drive.

PSTWALKER has a program that converts PST to a format that TB understands. I will use the program once I figure out if PSTWALKER is legitimate. It seems to be.

Do you like Thunderbird?

FWIW, I've been using Thunderbird for many many years, both on Windows XP & Windows 10. I find it to be an excellent email client. It can be used as IMAP or POP & you can get add-ons for it to check for duplicates, copy your sent items to your inbox, display all or just favorite folders. It blocks graphics unless you allow it. It also has a calendar, but I've never used it, as Outlook works better for tasks & Calendars, in my opinion.

I recently installed Thunderbird on a senior client's laptop and was very impressed. I like that I could reconfigure it to my liking quite easily. I couldn't find a suitable theme for the TB version I installed (that the client would have liked) but was able to rejig font sizes and display features to make it much easier to read and less crowded than Outlook.

I've been tempted to ditch my Outlook365 for Thunderbird ever since. And one of the many great features of Thunderbird is the simplicity of exporting your content to the Cloud or local backup drive.

If I recall correctly, I was also able to locate the data file on D: partition. Once upon a time, Outlook would allow pst data files to be stored on another drive, I just can't imagine why MS toasted that feature and now forces data files (.pst or .ost) to be on C: . I prefer to reserve C: for the OS & apps and store data elsewhere.

Viatcheslav said:

Thunderbird played a cruel joke on me once after one of the automatic (i.e. not initiated by me) upgrades by deleting all of my banking and payment notes in the "Description" section in an off-line calendar. Had to switch back to 2008 Sunbird 0.9
- - - Updated - -
On a positive note, Thunderbird seems to have the cleanest interface and the forgotten "mouse-over" feature for quick browsing of the details. Also, no ugly ribbons.

Welcome to Ten Forums Viatcheslav.

If you save your data files to a different drive or partition (not C:) or at the least backup to another drive, updates could never cause you grief.

Viatcheslav said:

Well...
Updates, not to mention unauthorized and unannounced updates, should never cause any grief first place.
What kinds of updates they are if they cause grief?

I couldn't agree more.

Windows updates are easy to fix, there are several solutions available for Home or Pro.
With Windows Pro you can use the Group Policy Editor to control updates.
Configure automatic updates/Option 2 = Notify before downloading and installing any updates

Open Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 10

Configure Automatic Updates

If you got caught by a TB update, just disable automatic updates and backup your data files before manually updating.


And there's always setting your connection to metered. That configuration works most of the time, I've only seen it fail once.

Set Wireless Network as Metered or Non-Metered in Windows 10

Set Ethernet Connection as Metered or Unmetered in Windows 10


Or, there's a script in Matthew's solution to control Windows updates with a nice and pretty GUI to set everything to metered.

Using CMD script and VBScript to control Windows Update

This is the method I use to control Windows Updates using Windows 10 Home (2004).

Every Time a new release of Firefox is released there will be an update to Thunderbird a few days later. It pays to upgrade it.

Just my opinion:

Thunderbird is my go to email platform, especially that 64-bit support is available.
eM Client is great, too.