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Thunderbird

"If you've lately taken to cursing at your current e-mail program,
then I suggest you give Thunderbird a try. It's the best
thing to happen to e-mail in a long time.”
- Forbes
“This surprisingly full-featured open-source program
is a snap to use...”
- PC World

“[Thunderbird] is better than Outlook...it has all
the features that matter.”
- IT Director



Thunderbird™ 1.0.7 , from the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in spell checker, extension support, and much more.

Thunderbird - Reclaim your inbox

To run the Thunderbird Installer, please click the install button below and run the exe file. Installation should take about 2 minutes. Afterwards you can use Thunderbird as is, or come back to this page to learn about its features and try some themes.

If you have Windows XP SP2 it will give you a warning. Just click run. If that does not work, just go to your Desktop and click on My Computer, and select the CD-ROM drive. From there just go to the Thunderbird directory and click on Thunderbird Setup 1.0.7.exe.

Install

 

First Run

Just like in Firefox, Thunderbird will ask you to import any existing email from, for example Outlook Express. Not only will Thunderbird import your email, but also your address book and other settings. If you have no existing mail, it will then ask if you wish to set up an account. You can also get to the menu from the Tools menu by clicking Accounts and Settings and clicking Add Account. This is where new accounts are set up. You should enter the details given to you by your mail server.

Learn about Thunderbird

  1. Smartest Way to Stop Junk Mail
  2. Mail, the Way You Want It
  3. Built-in Spell Checking
  4. Safe and Secure
  5. Personalize with Themes
  6. Unlimited Functionality through Extensions
  7. Integrated News Reader
  8. Save your searches
  9. Need Help?
  10. Spreading Thunderbird

Smartest Way to Stop Junk Mail

Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird

Tired of spam and annoying advertising in your Inbox? Thunderbird removes spam and helps keep your Inbox clean. Thunderbird provides the most effective tools for detecting junk mail. Our tools analyze your e-mail and identify those that are most likely to be junk. You can have your junk mail automatically deleted or put in a specific folder.

Thunderbird also has filters that learn what is likely to be spam based on the emails that you mark as junk. To activate the adaptive Junk Mail filters, go to Tools > Junk Mail Controls... , click the Adaptive Filters tab and check the Enable adaptive junk mail detection option. Whenever you receive a junk email, select it and press the Junk button in the toolbar to mark it as junk and Thunderbird will learn from this what to filter and what not to filter.

Mail, the Way You Want It

Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird

View your e-mail the way you want it. Choose between three unique message views, "Classic View", "Wide View" and "Vertical View". Select your toolbar layout. Customize your toolbar buttons and use the "View" option to quickly sort through your e-mail. These options and an intuitive layout makes you more productive and efficient, which is what Thunderbird is all about.

Built-in Spell Checking

Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird

There's no need for third-party spell checking software. Thunderbird comes with an integrated spell checker. All you need to do is to click on the Spell button in the toolbar and Thunderbird will do the work for you.

Safe and Secure

Unlike many other products, Thunderbird doesn't allow scripts to run by default. This results in a more secure product than other email programs on the market and helps stop the spreading of worms and viruses on the Web. Thunderbird provides enterprise and government grade security features such as S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, support for certificates and security devices.

Personalize with Themes

Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird Qute theme

Just like in Firefox, you can change the appearance of Thunderbird to fit your taste. Themes allow you to change the way Thunderbird looks using new graphics and colors. This CD includes some sample themes that can be installed from this CD, but there are many more available on Mozilla Update.

Unlimited Functionality through Extensions

Screenshot of Extension icon

How powerful do you want your email program to be? With extensions, you decide!

When first installed, Thunderbird includes the most used features in a mail program, but doesn't include the features that are only used by a few people. This keeps the program simple and fast for everyone. If you feel that you are missing something, Thunderbird lets you add additional features through extensions. Extensions allow you to tailor Thunderbird email to meet your specific needs, selecting the features you use and avoiding those you don't. This CD doesn't yet contain extensions for Thunderbird (it will in the future), but you can go online and take a look at the various extensions available at Mozilla Update.

Integrated News Reader

Thunderbird is not just an email program, it also includes a fully-integrated RSS (like Live Bookmarks in Firefox) and newsgroup (chat forums) reader! It supports all the basic functions, such as subscribing to your favorite news feeds, downloading messages, offline support and topic watching/ignoring.

You start an RSS feed account (or a newsgroup account) the same way as an email account. Go to the Tools menu then click A ccounts and Settings then Add Account. This time select RSS News (or Newsgroups account). You need to enter the address of some feeds under Manage Subscriptions in order to use it. Here's one for the BBC World News feed to start with: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml .

Save your searches

Almost every email program allows you to search your Inbox, so does Thunderbird. But Thunderbird goes further. You can save your search as a Saved Search Folder, which contains the results of your search. Thunderbird will keep the contents of this folder up-to-date even after new mail arrives. For example: if you want to have a handy list of all email from your buddy Joe, you simply go to the File menu and choose New > Saved Search.... Then give the new folder a name and select the location where you want to save it. Select the folders you want to search and enter the search parameters. For example, for all email sent by Joe you could use Sender is joe@buddy.com. Click OK, and your Saved Search Folder will be created. Any email sent by Joe will be shown if you select the newly created folder.

Need Help?

For more help visit the Thunderbird Help page.

Spreading Thunderbird

There aren't as many resources for Thunderbird as for Firefox. Obviously giving out this CD is a great method, or you can try out this PDF flyer.