By Ross M. Greenberg
I'm a happy puppy. Now. I was quite satisfied with Outlook Express as my mail package under Vista. But, then, I'm a rarity for I rather enjoyed Vista and thought it a tremendous operating system, albeit one erroneously and continuously bashed by and in an unknowing press. What fools these mortals be or something like that...
Then I moved to Windows 7. That same press said that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Balderdash! It doesn't come with any email package! Stupid move, in my opinion. And this is a step up, right? Its graphical user interface is rather pretty, and that's what's truly important -- in a world where form is more important than substance, maybe.
No email package -- harrumph!
Instead I was forced to use horrid Google Mail until I could load a decent package. It was my first experience dealing with Web-based email. Blech! Gmail is entirely free and in my opinion is overpriced. I prefer POP3 based mail -- it sits on your computer and your ability to respond to people and mail is not dependent upon something fickle, such as the Internet. Answer me this, you Googleites: did you spend more time waiting for "Still Working" to disappear from your screen then you did actually composing your email or response? I know that I did. There has to be a better solution. Please.
There are many email packages and homes for email addresses all over the net. Just pick one and then change my email address. Blech!! Changing my email address because I changed operating systems? There has got to be a better solution. Wait. Didn't I just say that?
I found it.
Windows Live Essentials
Windows Live Mail is truly the hidden gem within the Windows 7 package. It utilizes the Live Essentials package. Take a look at the package and what it offers. I found it surprising and amazing.
You can download Live Essentials for free from Microsoft itself at Live Essentials -- and should do so immediately. You'll discover it is aptly named and that its components really are essential.
Windows 7 is lacking a few expected items, such as the aforementioned email package, a decent appointment calendar and easy access to newsgroups. With Live Essentials some of Windows 7 most glaring deficiencies are negated. Live Mail is more than just a free Mailer. And the price is right: entirely free.
I was pleased to learn that Windows Live Mail is basically Outlook Express with some Outlook-type goodies thrown in. Another hidden goodie is that all of your email accounts will be automagially included for immediate upload and download operations, such as sending and receiving email. I didn' t even have to remember my login ID or password.
I have spent a great deal of time fine-tuning my email with a variety of different rules -- for example, if a message from a given correspondent contains a specific keyword then move it message to a particular folder and so forth. I had about 50-75 different rules. Not only was ruled composition important, the order in which they were executed was important, too.
