Well, I'm now trapped into using Win7 because my beloved XP system finally died.
OK, I can live with most of Win7's idiotic quirks, but Windows Live Mail 2011 is just so much worse than Outlook Express that I really need to find something better.
Before a dozen people automatically tell me that Thunderbird is the only other email program in the world, please wait until you finish reading.
I need a email client that handles multiple POP3 and IMAP accounts, including multiple different email addresses at the same ISP, and two accounts that show the same email address but use different ISPs (yes, that CAN be done -- it worked beautifully in OE, and it works in WLM just not as nicely).
On outgoing emails, I need to be able to attach files -- including pictures -- both from inside the mail program AND by right clicking in explorer (Send To - Email Recipient) and any attached pictures need to go as real attachments not this PhotoEmail nonsense.
On outgoing emails I need to be able to choose the account used to send the mail -- and change between different accounts on the fly -- including changing the account used to send a reply or forward from an account other than the account that received the original message.
On incoming emails I want to see the attached pictures, not thumbnails -- I need to be able to save individual attachments and I need to be able to specify where the individual files are saved.
Now, let me explain some of Windows Live Mail 2001's shortcomings so you can better understand what I don't want...
WLM lets me name each account -- but the dropdown menu to choose which account to send from uses the email address, NOT the account name - this may sound trivial, but keep in mind that I have multiple accounts with similar email addresses, and two different accounts using the same email address through different ISPs.
WLM is slower sending out emails than OE was. This would be just a minor annoyance, except that it is combined with two other quirks that all together become a real pain. WLM does not give any direct indication when it is sending an outgoing email message so you can't easily see when it is done sending. WLM locks any file attachments while it is sending the message (and apparently for a while after it finishes sending). All together this means that you cannot delete a file after you send it out as an email attachment until WLM gets around to releasing its lock on the file. When you sent a file attachment in Outlook Express, it immediately copied the file into the outgoing email, and it showed you the progress of the actual send. You could delete the file as soon as OE started sending it, or wait a couple of seconds until it finished. With WLM if you actually have WLM open, you can't delete files that have been sent as attachments unless you CLOSE WLM first. If you send the files by right clicking from explorer without having WLM itself open, you have to wait at least a minute after it sends the message before it eventually releases its lock on the files..
WLM treats incoming emails with attached pictures as if they were those silly photo emails, displaying thumbnails instead of the actual pictures.
WLM keeps resetting its own configuration to use Photo Emails even after you turn the feature off. And even with Photo Emails turned off, WLM still tries to send them as Photo Emails do you have to click in the "album" part of the email to get the format menu that lets you change it real attachments. (Apparently Microsoft has decided they are going to FORCE the world to accept these "Photo Emails" as the way to share picture files.
You hear a lot about Thunderbird so I tried looking for information on Thunderbird -- the most conspicuous thing I found was actually what I didn't find -- I could not find any site with screen shots of what Thunderbird looks like and the actual website has very little information as well as no way to download any documentation without downloading the program and hoping it includes documentation. I did find an intersting mix of user reviews, consisting of 5 star reviews from what seem to be new users (moving from webmail or from Windows Mail) and 1 or 2 star reviews from people who are used to programs like Outlook and Outlook Express.
