Windows Live Mail, which was part of Windows Live Essentials, is no longer officially available for download from Microsoft as the Live Essentials program has been discontinued.
Windows 10 users who are looking for a free email desktop client have limited options. Now that the Live Mail has been discontinued, most Windows 10 users are using the built-in Mail app. The built-in Mail app in Windows 10 is a basic email client, but the default app is good enough for many users.
Mozilla Thunderbird for Windows
Users who are looking for a solid yet free desktop email client for Windows 10 should try out the Mozilla Thunderbird.
Thunderbird is a free email client from the developers of the hugely popular Firefox browser which we all have used or have been using. The best thing about Mozilla Thunderbird is that it comes with no strings attached. This is important because there are many free third-party email clients around but most of them have some kind limitations.
To start with, Thunderbird is not Microsoft Outlook. That said, you get most of the essential features of Outlook in Thunderbird.
Mozilla Thunderbird features
Adding your email account to the Thunderbird is straight-forward. You don’t need to know IMAP, SMTP, and SSL/TLS settings. Just enter your email address and password to add an email account.
The tabbed interface means you can open emails in separate tabs so that you can keep two or more emails open, and quickly switch between them. In Windows 10 Mail and some other email clients, you cannot keep multiple emails open. This is probably one of the best features of Thunderbird as you can work on multiple emails at once.
The tasks feature is another handy feature available in Thunderbird. As the name suggests, it allows you to write down all your to-do lists and manage them. It has tons of options. You can set the priority, change the progress status, add attachments, specify state and end date, add location and more.
The feature list continues with attachment reminder. The attachment reminder reminds you to add an attachment before sending an email. Thunderbird looks for the word attachment in the content of the email, and if it finds the word attachment or attach and finds no attachments, it reminds you to attach a file when you try to send the email.
When it comes to security and privacy, the Thunderbird is certainly ahead of its competitors. It offers the Do Not Track option and also offers phishing protection. The Thunderbird alerts you when you click on a link which appears to be taking you to a different URL than the one mentioned in the message.
The search field (Ctrl + K) allows you to search the web without switching to a web browser. The email filter or quick filter toolbar is probably the best in its class as it allows you to search for emails in seconds. Just type in a word to see results.
The write or compose window has plenty of options. Options such as delivery status notification, return receipt, encrypt a message, set priority, and digitally sign messages are not available in many paid email clients.
Like Firefox, Thunderbird also supports add-ons. There are plenty of add-ons out there to customize and add new features.
Overall, an excellent piece of free from Mozilla. If you cannot afford Outlook or other paid email clients, Mozilla Thunderbird should be your default email client. The Mozilla Thunderbird is fully compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10.
If you are wondering, Mozilla Thunderbird is miles ahead of the built-in Mail app in Windows 10 in every department. The number of features and options in Thunderbird simply cannot be matched by Windows 10 Mail.
The default user interface could have been better, but the interface can be heavily customized with the help of available free add-ons. If you have not tried Thunderbird yet, try it out right now. It’s one of the best, if not the best, free email clients out there for Windows.
