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Microsoft email client. Alternatives to Outlook: Review of Email Clients for Windows

People have been using mail for years, writing letters to each other to ask how they are doing, congratulating them on some holiday, sending postcards to loved ones, relatives, and acquaintances. In the modern world, such a need has disappeared. After all, with the advent of the Internet and its spread, people began to use e-mail. This is much more profitable in terms of time, as well as financially. You don’t have to buy paper, a pen, an envelope, or go to a post office somewhere to send a letter. It’s quite simple, without leaving your home, to print what you want and send. To do this, you need to have some free time and access to the Internet.

More and more people are starting to use email. The number of incoming and outgoing emails is growing steadily. The spread of Gmail and Hotmail is gaining new momentum. Special desktop clients or email programs come to the aid of users. They process incoming correspondence for the individual. At the same time, the email user saves time, because the program does part of the work for him.

Email clients have never been particularly popular, but that doesn't mean they're low quality or difficult to understand. There are a large number of varieties of such programs that are very easy to install and do not have any glitches. For each user, you can find a suitable email client depending on his preferences.

Advantages of email programs

  • In order to check all incoming letters, it is not necessary to open the browser every time. The program itself will check your mail and download it to your computer at the frequency that the person chooses.
  • The program does not require manual downloading every time you turn on your computer or laptop. The mail client will start itself, you just need to add it to autorun.
  • Correspondence is checked from all mailboxes, if you have several of them. Letters are sorted into different folders or into one common one. The program conducts it according to your taste.
  • The email client can download letters to your computer at any time upon your request. It doesn't even require Internet access. Which is a big plus!
  • The program can sort all your letters depending on the subject, date, letter size, sender, and so on. Very comfortably. This function saves a lot of time for the user.
  • Thanks to the client, a person can easily find the letter he is interested in, knowing only the keywords contained in it.
  • When writing new messages, the user can pause the process, and the message will quickly be saved as a draft. The browser requires constant page reloading, and, of course, access to the Internet.
  • Due to the fact that the email program does not always request access to the Internet, especially when viewing incoming correspondence, there is a significant saving in traffic, and, as a result, in finances, which cannot please the user.

When installing a desktop client, you can always open a web browser, go to any website, use the interface you are interested in, and read your correspondence. This right remains yours. But, you must admit, there is not always enough time to log in and check your email. And the program will do everything for you and help you not to miss important information. After all, in the flow of things, you can forget about some important letter that should arrive by email. The client will not have to sit a lot of time waiting to receive the desired message with the mail tab open. So many advantages!

But to make these advantages work for you- you just need to install the desired program on your computer and remain delighted with its work. If you're wary of having to pay some money to download an email client, you can leave your concerns aside. There are a huge number of free email programs.

The most popular email client included with Microsoft Office. Allows you to work with contacts, tasks and calendar. Integrates with most enterprise collaboration systems. There are mobile versions for smartphones and tablets.

Free email program from Mozilla that's easy to install and configure - and has a lot of features

Free open-source email client for Windows, based on Mozilla Prism technology. In addition to mail, it contains the functions of an organizer, task manager, portfolio, calendar and much more.

Secure and efficient email client for Windows. The main tasks of the mail program The Bat! are: maintaining the confidentiality of correspondence, convenience and saving time when working with mail.

Updated Outlook Express is an email client included in Windows 7,8,10. Good protection against spam and phishing. Messages and contacts are divided into separate files with the EML extension, this allows you to view them using a file manager if necessary.

Free, simple, easily customizable email client. Supports working with multiple accounts. The built-in spam filter (with training function) shows good results and has several levels of protection.

Mail client for Window. Can connect to POP/IMAP servers such as Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail and import from other email clients. The program also offers a fully functional calendar that can even sync with a Gmail calendar or mobile device.

Program for working with e-mail and contact database for Windows XP. Outlook Express has been available as part of the Windows family of operating systems since Windows 95. In later versions of the OS it was replaced by Windows Live Mail, and then by Windows Mail.

The mail client is designed for processing correspondence from electronic mailboxes.

There is a great variety of software that can do this: multifunctional mail clients that combine the functions of a postal courier and a search agent.

Or simple utilities that allow the user to receive, send and store electronic messages.

The most popular email utilities for Windows OS will be discussed in this publication.

Purpose and application

It's no secret that many PC users have several email accounts, which can easily be registered on the servers of large search services.

They can be accessed through the resources on which they are registered.

If several addresses are registered on different sites, for example, Mail.ru; Yandex; Google; Yahoo, etc., then the login and authorization process must be completed for everyone.

In order to be able to work with correspondence from all mailboxes simultaneously, without much time and Internet traffic, mail clients were invented.

Before the "seven", all versions of Windows were equipped with the Outlook Express email program.

Later versions of the operating system introduced the Mail application, which allowed you to collect all your mail in one mailbox using a Microsoft account.

Basic functionality of email clients

As mentioned above, mail clients differ in their capabilities. But there are basic functions that are inherent in absolutely all such programs:

  • receiving correspondence;
  • sorting and grouping messages into folders;
  • creating email messages in the built-in text editor;
  • automation in the preparation of outgoing messages;
  • the ability to receive and send attached files in an email message.

In addition to the basic functionality, almost every email client has a lot of additional features: connecting RSS feeds, organizing a full-fledged organizer, the ability to send mass letters, etc.

The top five most popular email processing programs include the following mail clients:

  • The Bat;
  • eM Client;
  • Becky Internet Mail;
  • Windows Live Mail.

Let's look at each of them in more detail. Where you can download the utility you like, look under the product description.

Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a powerful software package that allows you to process mail, work with groups, connect news feeds, and has filters for incoming messages.

It can work with multiple accounts.

It works perfectly with all popular protocols (POP; SMTP; IMAP), and a flexible system of settings is provided by the built-in system of plugins.

The Thunderbird email client has gained particular popularity among domestic users for its convenient Russian-language interface.

The program is distributed under a free license.

The Bat

The Bat mail client takes second place in terms of frequency of use by PC users. It has a good set of functions, including:

  • Possibility of connecting an unlimited number of mailboxes, which can be received simultaneously.
  • Powerful incoming mail filtering system.
  • Possibility of selective downloading of letters from the server.
  • Support for importing messages from other email clients.
  • Built-in search for letters and respondents.
  • Multifunctional text editor

The Bat for Windows can encrypt messages using public key cryptography, so the user can be 100% sure that his messages will not be read by intruders.

eM Client

Most PC users highlight this particular program as the most functional and safe among similar ones.

Really, eM Client equipped with all the necessary functions for comfortable processing of correspondence: reading emails, sending messages, redirecting and sorting mail, etc.

This software package has a built-in full-fledged organizer, chat manager and many other quite interesting functions.

In addition, eM Client is Russified, supports the protocols of major mail servers and synchronizes perfectly with accounts created in Google, Yandex and iCloud services.

The only drawback of the program is that it is distributed on the basis of a paid license, although many users will be happy with the lightweight free version, which can be downloaded by following the link to the official website of the developer:

I always liked the Thunderbird email client for working with gmail, but recently its portable version began to fail - periodically, when sending heavy letters, the email client began to display errors that the letter was not sent, although in fact it was being sent... Perhaps the problem is that , that I have a huge number of letters in the client, or a problem with some settings, unfortunately I could not figure it out. I started looking for some other clients to try something new. After some searching on Google, I found two good email clients.

MailBird

Pros:

Minuses:

I initially chose this program for myself. But then I noticed one unpleasant thing.

I didn’t immediately notice some letters that are sorted through gmail filters into different folders.

Perhaps the problem is due to the fact that I have quite a lot of filters (as well as the letters themselves) and it takes a long time, after starting the program, until the mail is checked and numbers are displayed with the number of new letters in each folder (there are no such problems with the Inbox folder). The mail update time in the client does not seem to be configured anywhere. For me, the problem turned out to be critical over time and I had to stop using this client, although in all other respects I quite liked it.

eM Client

http://www.emclient.com/

Pros:

Minuses:

  • I didn’t ask in which folder to install the program, I immediately installed it on the C:\ drive. (you can change this option after installation, through “settings - general - storage”)
  • When entering your email password, a window appeared with the text: “ Error. Cookies are most likely disabled in your browser. Check this setting or open a new browser window.“, I had to dig around in the Internet Explorer browser to get eMClient to work because... I had cookies disabled in it. The problem is solved like this: “settings - browser properties - privacy” and then move the slider to the very bottom, and then save. After that, emClient started working and started checking mail.

Inky

Pros:

  • The client not only works on Windows, there are also versions for Mac, iOS and Android.
  • Free for use with GMail, iCloud, and Outlook.com accounts.
  • Beautiful modern interface.
  • Supports various types of encryption.
  • Select colors and icons for different accounts.
  • Probably the main function is the automatic sorting of incoming emails by relevance. Letters from your closest contacts are marked with a blue drop, which means the letter is highly important. Less important messages, as well as spam, are marked with less bright drops and are lowered lower in the general list of messages.

For ordinary people who do not use email for commercial purposes, the capabilities of the web interface of email services are often sufficient. These provide basic functionality for working with mail and in most cases are presented in a user-friendly interface aimed at beginners. Some email services, such as Yandex.Mail, can even offer a choice of design themes. But when using email in a commercial environment, greater efficiency can be achieved due to the capabilities of a special type of software - email clients, programs that are installed in the operating system, receive data from the email server and present it to the user in its own interface. Such email programs, as a rule, are capable of providing multi-account work with email and can offer flexible settings, filtering, sorting and other capabilities for working with large volumes of correspondence. Many mailers, in addition to this, also provide organizational functions such as a calendar, scheduler, contact database, etc.

In this article, we will look at current offers on the market of email clients for the Windows 7, 8 or 10 operating system. Not all of the email clients discussed below are functional tools. The review also includes minimalistic products, such as email applications included in the latest versions of Windows. Let's start the review with them.

1. Mail app included in Windows 8.1

The Mail program, which appeared in Windows 8, then migrated to its upgrade version Windows 8.1, became one of the aspects of Microsoft’s global idea - to offer the user a new format of the operating system with the old familiar and new simple tools designed for the average person on board. The built-in Windows 8.1 mailer is a product in the Modern UI (Metro) interface style, and, as befits mail programs of this format, it contains only basic functionality and a minimum of settings. The Mail program, being initially focused not on functionality, but on the convenience of working with email on touch devices with small screens, can do little: it supports working with several mailboxes, provides receiving, sending mail, moving it inside the mailbox, and the ability to customize the display letters in the order they were received or by type of conversation and a couple of other little things.

The Windows 8.1 email client has not grown into anything more since the introduction of version 8 of the system. The reason for this is the short time of relevance of Windows 8/8.1 itself. The evolution of the email client has already taken place in the Windows 10 version.

2. Mail app included in Windows 10

The Windows 10 email client has been constantly changing since the official release of this version of the system, and users who did not disable updates could periodically find new options in the settings. However, the mail client on board Windows 10 differs little from the Windows 8.1 mailer. Significant differences include the choice of interface colors, background images, and greater capabilities when creating emails, in particular, text formatting and working with tables.

3. Microsoft Outlook 2016

Native Windows email applications will never evolve into functional email clients, otherwise they will bury Outlook as part of the paid Microsoft Office software package. We will see everything that Microsoft is capable of as the creator of an email client in the current version of Microsoft Outlook 2016. In addition to a functional email client, Outlook also includes an RSS client, contacts, notes, a calendar, and a task scheduler. Among the functional advantages of the mail client module are developed systems for tagging, filtering and sorting correspondence, applying notification rules to new letters and automatically moving them to the desired folders, choosing the layout of the Outlook window for convenient presentation of mail, auto-archiving and other features.

Microsoft Outlook is an ideal product for the marketing industry. The mailer not only contains extensive tools for formatting text when creating emails; it essentially has a stripped-down version of Microsoft Word built into it. When creating letters, you can work with tables, autotext, shapes and express blocks, use Wordart and other functions of a text editor from Microsoft. The text of letters is pre-installed with a spell check, a built-in translator, a word count, and an intelligent search function.

4. Windows Live Mail

Another solution from Microsoft is a free client application for working with email services, part of the Windows Live software package. It appeared as a result of the separation of the Windows Mail email client on Windows Vista into a separate product. In terms of functionality, Windows Live Mail can be classified as something between Microsoft Outlook and the minimalistic email applications included in Windows 8.1 and 10. While Microsoft Outlook is a product aimed at the corporate user, Windows Live Mail is a product for the average person. It is created in the Ribbon interface format (with a toolbar divided into horizontally oriented tabs), provides, in addition to the email client, RSS client modules, databases with contacts, and a calendar with the ability to schedule events.

The functionality of the Windows Live email client is a stripped-down version of the capabilities of Microsoft Outlook. When working with mail, you can configure a convenient layout of the client window, apply filters, selections, sorting options, use the conversation type view of letters, create rules for automatic deletion of letters, moving them to the desired folders, forwarding to individual recipients, etc. The form for creating emails, compared to Microsoft Outlook, has a more meager arsenal, however, the necessary text formatting options are present, and among the insertion functions there is even the ability to create a photo album inside the letter.

5. The Bat!

Let's start our review of third-party email clients with the market leader - The Bat! , the most functional program of all presented in this article. The Bat! can offer the user a customizable interface, mail sorting, advanced search through the contents of the mailbox, an RSS client, a database with contacts, protection against viruses and spam, setting a password for accessing mail, checking spelling when creating letters and other features. One of the key features of this email client is templates, a more advanced analogue of the rules of conduct in Microsoft Outlook. Using The Bat! You can create template letters and set rules for the mailer.

The Bat! – an email program, a paid product, there is a monthly trial version to evaluate all the features.

6. Mozilla Thunderbird

Opera Mail consists of three modules - the mail section, the RSS client and the newsgroup client. For the mailer window, you can choose a convenient layout for presenting letters. Directly for working with electronic correspondence, Opera Mail can offer a tagging system, mail sorting, and the use of a contact database. The options for creating letters are minimal - text without formatting and attaching attachment files.

8. eM Client

The last participant in the review is the eM Client email client. Organizationally and functionally, it is similar to Windows Live, but, in addition to the modules of an email client, a calendar planner, a database with contacts, and an RSS client, it also provides a chat function. To the eM Client chat you can connect accounts of such services for exchanging text messages as: Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo!, GaduGadu, etc. Among the capabilities of the email client we will find a standard set of functions such as mail sorting, tagging, a developed search system, etc. filtering inside mailboxes. It is possible to work with rules for automatic deletion, forwarding, moving correspondence to the desired folders, etc. The eM Client interface is customizable: you can choose a design theme, adjust the window layout and the position of the sidebar on the right to your preferences.

While all previous participants in the review, except for the paid The Bat!, allow you to connect an unlimited number of mailboxes as part of the free use of programs, the freeness of eM Client is limited to only two connected mailboxes.

Have a great day!