No Email Program in Windows 7???????
Summary: This has got to be a joke (albeit a very bad one). Or an oversight.
This has got to be a joke (albeit a very bad one). Or an oversight. A mistake, maybe? Is there really NO EMAIL PROGRAM IN WINDOWS 7????? Not even Microsoft is that stupid, are they? Really?
If this is true, then I would guess it is a cheap trick from Microsoft to try to force their users to switch to Windows Live Mail or whatever. I certainly wouldn't put that past them - but still, it seems like an extraordinarily blunt instrument, even for them.
All of the dedicated (blind) Microsoft loyalists out there who have been going on and on and on and on about how wonderful Windows 7 is, and how easy the upgrade from Vista is (what about Windows Mail users), and how easy the migration from XP is (what about Outlook Express users)... I'm waiting to hear the rationalization behind this one.
Here's a new slogan for Windows 7:
Migrating is easy when you throw away an application
Here's one last thought. Assuming some Microsoft customers choose to go ahead and switch to Windows Live Mail (essentially at gunpoint, but we can be charitable and say "choose"...). Do the wonderful, excellent, beautiful Microsft Windows 7 Upgrade/Migration tools make it easy for them to transfer their existing data - mail folders (all of them, intact), addresses and such?
jw 25/10/2009
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No Email Program in Windows 7???????
Microsoft philosophy IS to move everyone over to Windows Live Mail, but I have no idea whether mail can actually be migrated to a storage structure on the computer. Generally speaking, I think that my friends using Outlook Express/Windows mail will not be best pleased with the omission of the mail client, to put it mildly; what are they supposed to do with their existing mail? Indeed, how do they continue receiving their ISP based email on their computer.
I personally have previously lost all my email on my Hotmail account (nothing critical) and I have a friend using only Yahoo who lost all her mail going back years. At the time there were other reports of lost emails. Currently, there is the T-Mobile/Sidekick fiasco with customers' lost data and in which Microsoft are involved.
Perhaps bucking the trend, I like all my data stored locally, and I think that probably goes for a lot of other people too.
Incidentally, Microsoft's instructions to 'upgrade' from XP included with Win 7 downplay the task considerably, as this is not a task to undertaken lightly or even by the less experienced.
Notwithstanding this, Windows 7 is pleasant to use. I have the RC Ultimate installed on my netbook in a multi-boot arrangement with the original XP and Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 which I will upgade to 9.10 next week.
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
I'm guessing you were expecting Outlook Express, which was dropped in Windows Vista three years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook_Express)?
Windows Mail is a free download. It's the curent "free desktop e-mail client" for Windows, but since many people like to use webmail (such as GMail) or other e-mail clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.), why install it on everyone's computer?
You can import your mail from Outlook Express to Windows Mail. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Import-messages-into-Windows-Mail-from-Outlook-Express
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
Second, I wasn't aware that Windows Mail was supposed to be a free download for Windows in general, or Windows 7 in particular, but I have to say after doing some very brief searching, I'm still not convinced that it is, since everything I found said "download Windows Mail for Vista". Even if it is (and honestly I'm willing to take your word for it, or at least for the fact that the Vista download will work on Win7), is this something that we should expect the average, ordinary Windows user to know about, and to be able to accomplish? Isn't this one of the things that Linux is constantly getting ripped for, that users have to download and install things that they need?
Third, in answer to "why install it on everyone's computer", I would respond "why not, when it is such a basic part of the use of the computer for so many people, and it has ALWAYS been included in every previous release of Windows". When the Windows 7 distribution is running to however many hundred megabytes (or gigabytes), exactly what are they "saving" by omitting something like this, compared to the inconvenience and aggravation they are causing for so many users?
Fourth, while I certainly agree that Thunderbird can be used, and I certainly would do exactly that if I were ever cursed with having to use Windows 7, I don't think that's the point for most Windows users. As for Outlook, the last I knew it was not free, users who use it generally got it as part of Microsoft Office, which is a long way from "free", and if you are foolish enough to try to buy only Outlook separately, it is currently listed at Microsoft for $109.95...
My point is, generally speaking some sort of simple email client such as Outlook Express or Windows Mail is extremely small potatoes, so why would Microsoft drop it after having included it in one form or another in every Windows distribution at least since Win98, and I can't specifically remember before that. I think it is exceptionally stupid and inconsiderate of their existing customers.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.
jw
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
By the way, I would be very interested in hearing what you think after you upgrade UNR to 9.10. I was exceptionally impressed when I looked at it a couple of weeks ago, I think it is a huge improvement over 9.04, at least in appearance and usability.
jw
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
The Windows Live Mail product was the succesor to Windows Mail (nee Outlook Express) anyway, it's version 14, built by the same team that built Windows Mail, and is not a new application. Updates to the Windows Mail client stopped during Windows Vista with the focus put on Windows Live Mail allowing for the use of webmail, RSS reader, seperate inboxes for each account and other changes to make it more full featured.
So there is no why Windows Live Mail not Windows Mail issue, as it is the same product, the fact that it's now downloaded is neglible really, and is only to the the consumers benefit not detriment.
Users can choose if they want to download the Live Suite (Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery etc either one or all of them) or if they want someone elses product altogether, and not just use Microsofts client by default just because it happens to be there in the OS.
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
-Mary
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
jw
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
Once set up, Windows Live Mail does seem, more or less, to act as a normal mail client. However, I can imagine many of the (otherwise intelligent) users I come across being completely confused and, in fact, totally unable to get to grips with an 'upgrade' from XP to Win 7 unless someone will do it for them.
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
For some time I have happy to be using Thunderbird but I will be seriously thinking of changing to Sylpheed in the near future.
First impressions are excellent and I expect that I can use it in Linux as well, although I have not yet checked.
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
Why do you dread Live ID? It's a long way from Passport now... and no more broken than OpenID
-M
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
@Bisson/Branscombe - I do not trust anything that Microsoft does, under any circumstances and for any purpose, and I always assume they have the worst possible motives for whatever they do. That sounds ridiculously paranoid, but unfortunately Microsoft has proven it to be justified many times over the years.
jw
No Email Program in Windows 7???????
@J.A.
You might also like to look at Claws-Mail.
This was originally an offshoot of Sylpheed (as Sylpheed-Claws), but has now gone it's own way, although it still uses the same standard mailbox file structure.
It is multiply cross-platform although as yet, I don't think the Windows version has in-line spell checking.
I've been using it for several years, and find it very light-weight.
A lot of people that have recently downloaded Windows 7 have been perplexed as to why they suddenly lost their server email account. After just installing Windows 7 I was perplexed and annoyed as well. The email account I had used for years through my server had disappeared to nowhere land. I then signed up for a windows live email account instead. Today I went to my start menu >> all programs and clicked on the Windows Live folder in the program list. I then clicked on the "windows live mail icon" to see if I could add the mail icon to my desktop to see if I could create a shortcut there so that I would not have to get online and go through hotmail sign in to get the mail. This worked perfectly and lo and behold when I clicked on the icon there was my regular server aquired account. I can also import any of my other live or hotmail accounts to my server account. So for all those who suddenly found themselves without their regular mail client there ia a way around it. Microsoft just doesn't make it easy to find this out. It is true that outlook express is gone forever or you can buy outlook for $100 but why not use live mail instead?
Graycie 2010
2012. Doesn't time fly. 2 years since the last comment. Nothing has changed. Toyed with Vista and then ignored. Have been forced into '7' by a new laptop purchase. Originally put off by the adverts. Who want's an OS put together by everyone on the planet? Now, here it is and I can't use it because, everyone on the planet forgot email. I blame the phone, the planet and everyone on it. Who needs to write?
Searched all the web pages, everyone else searched. What looks like a reasonable replacement for OE? Nothing. So, I guess, it's either, try something new (already doing that - even if it is old now) or revert. Something about an 'X' in a name that a '7' lacks. Besides which, it's a film.
Hope that makes sense.
xxx