What are people replacing WLM with?

Shrimply

Hi all,

I've used Windows Live Mail for years, have about 8 email accounts which go to it, but obviously Microsoft want to kill it off. I've converted my hotmail accounts to use IMAP which are working fine but the killer is that my calendar (which also played nicely with my android phone) is no longer syncing.

I'll be damned if they are going to force me to upgrade to Windows 10 and while I do have access to Outlook I'm not overly inclined to go down that path.

At the minute I'm thinking that the best (only?) solution is to import my hotmail calendar to Google (this causes a few issues as it can't cope with recurring events) and set up Thunderbird. This works but I'm not a huge fan of the interface, which is why despite being a Firefox fan I've always stuck with WLM.

Just curious as to what others were doing that were in the same boat, I've seen Mailbird mentioned a few times but it's not free if you need to use more than a couple of email accounts.

Robisere

I changed to free Outlook from WLM, no pain and no problems. It is IMO much better than WLM was. I also have a gmail account and can transfer Outlook messages to that should I wish.

John_Gray

Robisere wrote: »

I changed to free Outlook from WLM,...

I presume you mean the website outlook.com (the successor to hotmail.com), not the Outlook which comes with Microsoft Office?

Trust Microsoft to give very similar names to two entirely different things!

esuhl

I don't use it myself, but I think Thunderbird has a calendar. Surely that would sync with Android's calender...?

Fightsback

I've not tried these myself but here are a couple of guides found using the magical power of Goolge for both Google and Exchange calenders with the Thunderbird lightening calender:

Exchange (Outlook Live Exchange protocol, see comments at bottom of artice)

http://threenine.co.uk/setup-office365-calendar-with-thunderbird/

Goolge Calender:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/using-lightning-google-calendar

HappySeagull

What issues do you have with recurring events in Google calendar? I've used it for quite a while, and the only problem I had was that some imported recurring events (from Outlook) needed "tweaking". New ones have been fine. I get reminders emailed to a Google address that I set up just for this, and pick them up on my PC, laptop, Hudl and Android phone.

paddyrg

John_Gray wrote: »

Trust Microsoft to give very similar names to two entirely different things!

Oh goodness they're blighters for that. Whichever marketing idiot does this should be slapped, but they're dreadful for slapping strange new labels on ok existing products and seeming to put people off at the same time. Once it was MSN this and that, then Windows Live this and that, then... Oh goodness one loses track. Some cool technologies popped up under one sub-brand just to be deprecated and never renamed. Some old stuff got a facelift and badged with the name of a successful product line (outlook.com, for instance, or passport SSO which is still finding new names). Some functionality in server products gets renamed at the request of zero of its users.

I'll bet the renaming thing has lost a lot of time and goodwill over the years, which is a shame as there's some truly excellent engineering in those products.

Shrimply

Robisere wrote: »

I changed to free Outlook from WLM, no pain and no problems. It is IMO much better than WLM was. I also have a gmail account and can transfer Outlook messages to that should I wish.

Yeah I don't really follow... I believe Microsoft offered a years free use of the Outlook desktop program in an email (which I never received on any one of my 3 hotmail accounts) stating that they were going to end support for WLM. But after that you are going to have to hand over money to continue using it.

I can use Thunderbird, which will sync with a Google calendar and this is what it looks like I will end up using, but it's not as pleasant on the eyes in my mind as WLM was.

Thanks for the link Fightsback, it seems sensible to move my calendar away from Microsoft though, the extra steps required for my phone made sense when I was using a microsoft desktop product on multiple computers. It doesn't seem as worthwhile not just to switch to Google calendar now.

My issue with recurring events, is with transferring them to Google. I'm sure once they are set up there they will work fine.

I guess I'm still sulking a bit about Microsoft's tactics here and from what I've read their alternative in Windows 10 is no where near as good.

agarnett

I too am still trying to settle on a replacement for WLM.

I used Thunderbird for a couple of weeks but am concerned about future-proofing it, and the ease of ever getting my mails out of it again to use in something else.

I've actually gone back to WLM again for the moment.

Sure I know mails can be exported from Thunderbird but its the local storage folders I am worried about one day in a year or two perhaps having to move the folders one by one and having to cross-check them carefully. I have a lot of them. I don't need the calendar.

I use WLM on my PC as the main archive for all my emails going back years. It is very portable in that I can simply copy the Windows Live Mail hidden folder onto a 16GB USB and immediately I link it to a fresh install of WLM on any machine e.g. as I had to do after Windows 10 Anniversary Update removed WLM, I can within moments carry on from where I left off - with total confidence.

I was surprised when I started hunting around to find that Outlook Express 6 seems to have survived as long as it did, and am wondering if WLM will also long outlive the warnings that Microsoft "Support" is withdrawn.

There is a rather clunky looking OE Classic available out there, but the people behind it charge a license fee to activate the "Pro" features, whatever they might be.

I need to investigate the free "Outlook" whatever that might be - anyone offer a link to the right download page? The MS Office Outlook doesn't offer local storage folders as far as I can see.

And yes, the Windows 10 Mail program is embarrassingly bad.

Having said that, I have just realised that if you want to continue using GMail accounts inside WLM, you have to give Google permission to allow access to "Less Secure Apps"! Else Google are likely to Block WLM from accessing your mail!

I guess this is it, 1984 has arrived finally. We are all being corralled into total surveillance, and that means we are only supposed to use email clients approved by state actors. By the way is "state actor" in the Oxford English Dictionary now? It certainly seems to be in now frequent use!

Mr_Toad

Email clients, a *very* personal subject.

I'm not a Windows user, I worked on Linux/Unix, however, we had a Windows Laptop and used Outlook and MS Office for the usual spreadsheets and documents as you would expect.

I really like Outlook, the version you get with MS Office Pro, not the online version. I think it's probably the single best piece of software MS has ever created with its integrated calendars and contacts etc. and for me is pretty much the perfect email client.

On Linux I use Evolution, I like it's built in calendar but it's no Outlook.

On my Macs I have MS Office so I do have Outlook and while the mail client is brilliant there are minor but irritating problems with integration with some of the other Mac applications. As a result I decided to go back to using Apple Mail as integration is total and largely flawless.

I have tried many free mail clients and some paid for ones like Postbox which is basically Thunderbird in a party frock with some bells and whistles that Thunderbird should have but doesn't. A fine client but not quite perfect.

Nothing seems to polarise or irritate people quite like an email client. Finding the perfect solution can be a pain.

I hope you find one that suits but I would suggest that you try the paid for ones as well as the free ones, they all offer a trial, and if you find one you like buying it may well save you years of frustration that using a not so good but free one might bring.

Oblivion

Fortunately I don't have any Microsoft email accounts so I shall happily continue using WLM which I like very much. It does all I need.