If the Outlook Express is working with no problems, I see no reason why you have to keep the Live Mail account. Just my opinion. Not irritating at all, by the way.

Hello mudlady:

Just remember........the dumbest question is the one that you DON'T ask! There are no dumb questions. How will you know if you don't ask?

And to answer your question....it would be fine for you to uninstall WIndows Live Mail.

Most people use web-access (with a browser) for email. If you're using any of the more popular ones - gmail, yahoo, hotmail, an email address from your internet service provider etc - there's no need to get a program involved, you can connect to your email service directly online.

Does doing it with the program offer a capability you prefer, that's unavailable with the more common web based approach?

Snidely, I do wonder how you come by all your knowledge?? How do you know that most people use web access for email? I have gmail as my primary client, but I seldom use my browser to access it using either OE on my XP box or WLM on my Win 7 laptop. Much handier having a desktop program than having to click, click my way to my mail. I still would need to see proof that the web based approach is the more common method as you insist.

Of course, in a work environment, using a non-personal computer, I would use the browser, but not everyone accesses his/her mail while at place of employment.

Thank you grandms for asking the question. I also like on board email. My server email is routed through WLM. On WLM I have a nice clean page to look at without all the junk that is on the online. And I don't have to log in, log out to all 3 of my server accounts, they all come to my computer together.

Years ago, I was using Incredimail program. Well, my computer crashed, and I ended up losing all of my emails and I'm thinking all email addresses...but could that be? After that, I thought, "Never again." Another plus of reading emails on line, is that those in my Hotmail are current, and I can access them wherever I'm at....Like at the library or anywhere when I am away from home.

When I was using Incredimail, I was either having my Hotmails deleted from the Hotmail site as soon as they downloaded to Incredimail (thus all was lost with the crash), or if I saved them on Hotmail after being downloaded to Incredimail, I then had to go in every so often and clean them out.

I forgot to add...Incredimail, for those not familiar with it, is like Outlook Express, but with more 'junk'.

I prefer my own servers email. I had trouble with Yahoo and Gmail, never have a problem with my server.

I have >30 years of experience working as a business (non-engineering) adviser in Silicon Valley. Over those years I've had exposure to business development, strategic analyses, product planning, marketing, etc, for a variety of companies involved with hardware, software and/or internet markets. I've worked with a good number of the companies that get mentioned over time in this forum, including several that offer email.

My first experience with email was in the mid 80s. (Maybe it was '85?) I was working on a collaboration-type project with a fairly geeky group, and they decided to use a new service bureau offering called MCI Mail to communicate. MCI Mail was an email system that you used a dial-up modem (prob 2400 baud) for the connection. MCI Mail was one contributor to the start of a revolution.

Outlook is the client part of Microsoft's enterprise solution, at one time is was needed to access the server-based mail system they sold. They include it as part of the retail Office bundle because (at one time) many people were accustomed to using it at work and that created a demand to use it at home. Many free front ends evolved, Eudora was one of the earliest, there's many many others.

Web-based mail is ubiquitous today, even within organizations. Gmail and others can act as a front end (just like a running program) to other mail providers and enterprise systems.

When someone is seated at a PC (at home or at work), they invariably have a browser window open. If you bookmark your mail page, it is just one click (or a short entry on the address line) to open your mail. Or, once you've signed on, the window is kept open and is always there to look at.

On this thread, and the other recent one, when I see that someone has a question, a problem, or otherwise, with an unnecessary email front end, the obvious comment to make is "Why bother?"

Everyone should do things as they prefer, but my experience tells me that in most things the simplest approach is usually the best approach.

If I only used one email address I would probably use webmail but I use several so I get all my email in one inbox with Thunderbird on my computer. I do this for several reasons, the primary one being that I only have to deal with one interface. I don't have to figure out how to create a mailing list on each site or how to send an email to a list using bcc, how to insert a picture, etc. I do leave the messages on the servers so that I can access them when I'm away from my computer but have access from another.

It is not that simple with my server. I have to log in to one, then log out, then log in to my second one and log out, same with the third one. Why bother with that when one click on my email icon on my desktop gets all 3 accounts mail at the same time.

Like bob414, I have several e-mail addresses, and being able to access all of them in one place is so much more convenient than logging in and out of each one. Also, I leave all my messages on the server so that I can go back more than a year if I wish and I can access them on any computer. I do keep only a limited number on my desktop program, so I think I have the best of both worlds.

I'll repeat, what might be better in a business environment
is not necessarily better for use on ones personal comp. It all boils down to a matter of personal preference. My objection to what was voiced was the "suggestion" that the use of a desktop program was somehow inferior to using a browser to access ones mail.

I ave six Hotmail/Live accounts. Five of them are tagged together on-line for remote access convenience. However, at home I use Thunderbird to access the three primary accounts. I could access all five or even the sixth if I wanted to.

It is without question easier using TB for access; one click and all three download. When using remote access there is of course the initial log in followed by clicking on each tagged address one by one.

Bobbie,

My governmental assignment strongly promotes the use of an on-board e-mail client for it's network while even more strongly discouraging the use of any web based e-mail service. Though they drive me crazy sometimes, these folks are no dummies. Several I would say are smarter in their field than all of us here.

DA

My introduction to email was when an ISP (dial-up)rep came to my house to set up my connection and get me online. My first computer was a Zenith Eazy 8086 and it didn't have windows-just a DOS manager. It didn't even come with a mouse. I was the kind of person called a professional student but the real reason I kept getting degrees was because I was terrified I might find myself jobless. I had a BS in '66, an AAS in'77, an MS in '87 and was working on upgrading the AAS in Nursing to a BSN when I realized students were beginning to hand in papers that were done on a computer. That's why I got the Zenith. By the time I was working on my MS in Nursing I finally got a Windows computer. It even had a mouse! A course required me to go online and I had to get the dial-up connection and an ISP. The rep who came to my house set me up with Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. I struggled to master every step it took to finally feel I was marginally computer literate. That's when I chose the name "Computerdyslexic" for an email account. I have been challenged to try Netscape and Opera but I feel comfortable with IE and still use it. OE is another story. It crashed regularly and I did try other mail programs but only OE felt comfortable,so I kept getting help to keep it going. At some time and on some subseuqent computer and with other ISPs and finally a DSL,I used Office Mail, MS Mail, and MS Live Mail. Switching to these programs was always hard for me to master but because they looked like OE and didn't crash too often, I remained loyal. That brings me to my current effort to get an MS mail program I like. I am no longer satisfied with OE but do want my mail to LOOK like OE. I am 68 now and haven't earned any new degrees since sommetime in the 90s. When I was younger I used three mail accounts for various interests and thought I would be organized and keep my mail in three folders. Yeah! I am down to two now and would like to drop to one but I would have to alert far too many people and businesses that I now had only one email addy. I pay all my bills online, shop online and use either account for inportant accounts likie my AARP menbership, reitrement incomes and special interest groups and forums.

So--that is why I want a mail program from MS--because the woman who first set me up to go online gave me OE! I have Asper Syndrome and don't like change. I am 68 and 5 months and set in my ways. Sometimes I do something that is really hard for me just to prove I have gumption but giving up wanting my email to look like it comes from OE isn't going to happen right now. I am dieting and losing weight and that is challenge enough for me right now :-)

Oops! Was proofreading and sent by accident. Sorry for any mistakes--Aspies are also perfectionists!

Nancy

Mudlady, I know where you're coming from. I am 81 now, but fortunately I haven't had too many problems with computers. However, I know just enough to get myself into trouble once in a while, so that is why I keep this forum as my home page on one of the browsers I use. When I first got my Windows 7 laptop, I was dismayed to find that I could not use OE. I tried Thunderbird but just could not make myself like it. I finally bit the bullet and downloaded Windows Live Mail. I still don't feel as comfortable with it as with OE, but when I use the laptop, I use WLM and really have no problems with it. I have even managed to find stationary that I can use with it, too. So don't let your age keep you from learning new things, although I'm sure some conditions might make that difficult. WLM is the closest thing to OE that I have been able to find, so I think you will be comfortable with it.

Good luck to you in your weight loss program. I recommend a web site given to me by a dietician several years ago. It is called Spark People. Just Google that name and you should be able to find it. They have loads of things to help in your fitness program.

Always nice to have conversation!

I'd like to change one comment I made. I suspect smartphone email use is very high. How high, I don't know, but almost every public and private system of any size accommodates their use with special access and apps.

Google's Mail Fetcher will combine up to 5 different email accounts into one, so that you can access them all in one place. When you do "reply", you can change the return address so it looks to have come from the other "remote" account. I suspect you could do more than 5 by cascading the accounts, but no one should need more than a few email accounts. If that's wrong, let me know!

grandms, my comments had nothing to do with work vs private use. Awkward is awkward, easy is easy. Make yourself happy with however you want to go about your mail tasks. I was just trying to offer a suggestion to people having questions or trouble trying to do something that they may not have known was unnecessary

DA, if your governmental agency didn't want web access used, they could turn it off. I suspect the reason is an attempt to decrease the load on their system by offloading some of the work to the client software.

Mudlady, keep up the good attitude. Be open to new ways, that's what technological advances are all about. Without those advances, you'd still be struggling away with that Zenith and getting by without all the great functionality today's online world offers. Those changes seem to have been ok with you, you may be more open to change than you think.

Nope, I "suspect" not.

DA

I have six Hotmail/Live accounts.
ahhh.well logging in and out of Hotmail six different times, would certainly be a pita. I know what works best for one person, might not be the best for the next person.

Example...a friend has a laptop, but has no internet access at home at this time (lives on a remote, rural hillside). Her hubby takes the laptop to town when he goes to work, and while in town, downloads all of their emails. Later that eve/night, they can both reply to the emails, and they will then be 'sent' the following day. Whenever I email her, I know better than to expect a quick response.

Sue

Ok...not meaning to highjack, I'll ask a very basic question too, since it also pertains to email and convenience.
I log onto the computer in the AM, and log into and check my email. I then don't log out out of my email, or log off of the computer all day. The computer does go to sleep pretty quickly when I step away from it for a bit. Is what I'm doing a bad thing? A dangerous thing? Is my computer, at risk of being hacked, invaded, whatever, while I am logged in but at sleep?

If so, why? This is my 'home' PC, and there is no risk of anyone here reading or getting info from my emails, unless I get broken into, and kidnapped or something awful and the perpetrator then kidnaps my computer too. When I check email at a friend's house or the library, I'm always careful to just read, reply, or delete and and then log off right away.

I don't see any danger in that Sue. You're logged in from your computer only. Anyone else would have to get into your mail from your computer.

Thunderbird - I'm going to have to look into that. It would be wonderful to go to only once place and access the e-mail from my several e-mail accounts. Is is just Thunderbird.com?

This would be the download link for Thunderbird

Here is a link that might be useful: thunderbird

I don't see any danger in that Sue. You're logged in from your computer only. Anyone else would have to get into your mail from your computer.
Thanks Bob. That is what I thought, but I read somewhere the other day that it was really risky and that one should read, reply, delete, whatever in email and then immediately log off. It told of the potential dangers of someone coming along and using the computer while you were logged into email, like if using a computer in public or a workplace, or even someone in one's home. Well, of course I knew all of that and wouldn't stay logged in here at home if there were other people here wanting to use the computer. In that case they would be using it under a 'guest' login.
The article was just blah, blah, blah over the top stressing that you needed to log out immediately for security reasons. It was from some reputable site and not something like ask.com or other yahoo answers, etc. It didn't convince me or scare me enough to do as suggested and I made mental note to ask others who are 'in the know'...like here at CH.

Sue

My computer is logged into Thunderbird which is logged into several online accounts 24/7. I've never had a problem with it and it will be news to me if someone who knows something that I don't tells us there is a danger in this.

Perhaps I left members scratching their heads as why six accounts.

1. Family and close friends.
2. Financial; banking and investing
3. Forums
4. On-line shopping
5. Sites that require an e-mail address to access/register.
6. All other activity.

They are not all used every day. Just #1, #2 and with regularity #3. If for some reason one of the addresses goes south, and can no longer be used there is no effect on the others.

DA

Oops forgot. Too much exhaust from riding the zero-turn.

I thought I was clear earlier, but I must not have been. Hotmail/Live and now Outlook allow you to tag accounts for near seamless access. After everything is configured you only have to log on to any of the tagged accounts. To change addresses you click on your ID and an appearing drop down menu appears showing the other accounts. You then click on the target account. No other need to log in. I honestly do not know if all accounts have to be MS based.

Hotmail and Live allowed the tagging of five accounts. Outlook starts with five, and will expand to ten via one additional each month. So they say.

This is simple and minimal, but not as easy as Thunderbird. I do it for remote access.

DA