Email client on Windows

Hi Jahmal,

Personally, I enjoy the simplicity and efficiency of Windows 11 Mail. Coming from Bootcamp Windows 10 Student Edition from my old college days to last month obtaining a new Ryzen-based HP PC; I have found I also enjoy Windows Mail for it's calendar synchronization.

To quote an old Apple advert; It just works. 😀

If you're looking for a new email client, I wouldn't recommend getting started with Windows 11 Mail or Calendar at this point, as those apps are being phased out in favor of Outlook. My understanding is that they are not included in new installations of Windows 11, and will be removed from the Microsoft Store on December 31, 2024. While this doesn't necessarily mean that the apps will stop functioning after that date, they will no longer receive bug fix or security updates, which will make them increasingly vulnerable as time goes on. This Microsoft support article goes into more detail about the transition and what existing users of Windows 11 Mail and Calendar can expect.

A shame if that is what Microsoft has chosen to do. The Windows male client is very user-friendly, so I will be sad to see it go.

I switched to Thunderbird. The Outlook app is a nasty web interface for Outlook, so no thank you! Thunderbird works well once you disable all the toolbars, welcome page, etc. The only problem I have with it is the keyboard focus isn't immediately placed on the message list when I open it. I have to press Shift+Tab twice or Shift+F6 to focus it. Where's the best place to report Thunderbird accessibility problems? My first thought is GitHub, unless there's somewhere more specific?

Way back in the days of Windows XP. Speaking of the way back when machine, remember One windows came with a little app called "outlook express", feels like Microsoft is going back to the good old days with this move.

As for reporting on Thunderbird issues, does mozilla.org no longer exist?

I like the mail ap but am just used to thunderbirds way of doing things. Plus, you have to press shift plus enter to open an email, that's just not something i'm used to.

Someone somewhere recommended Betterbird, it supposedly has more bug fixes that Thunderbird doesn't have and the Betterbird team says that they have been adding back old features Mozilla removed from Thunderbird.
You may want to check it out.
I'm not a super power user, so can't vouch or say for what features were added, but hey. May be worth looking into, as it is similar to Thunderbird, but with the supposed added features thhat were missing.

Will definitely give the Betterbird option a try as we get closer to this proposed December deadline.

For info I am on windows10 and yesterday went into the native mail app only to find it has become outlook. Some odd webpage which is horrible. So wouldn't guarantee December before decissions have to be made.

1. Windows mail.

There should be a button that says something like, switch back to the old outlook, if you press enter or space on that it should do it for you.

2. Thunderbird. It's very accessible. You might want to go into settings and change the open mesages in... Radio buttons, I've chosen to open each message in a new tab, also i'm sure if you look around there you'll find other settings to change but once that's done; it should be a very accessible client.

I use Windows Mail for my hotmail account, and Outlook 365 for my Gmail account. The new Windows Outlook is horrible. I'll try that Better Bird thing for my hotmail account when the Mail app as we know it goes away permanently. I didn't like Thunderbird when I tried it. But it's good to know about both options. Maybe I'll give Thunderbird another go too.

Although the latest version of Thunderbird is accessible, they've made so many changes that it's more cumbersome to use. The best version of Thunderbird for usability is 102.15.1. You don't need to press F6 as many times and first letter navigation still works with the old extension. I accidentally upgraded to the latest version (115) and immediately regretted it. I downloaded the portable version of 102.15.1 and have been happily using it ever since.

Betterbird is a nice email client, but I currently can't stand its calendar. I have it syncing with my Google calendar, but all my appointments aren't displayed on a day-to-day basis like Outlook 365 does. This makes finding appointments difficult. Plus, I don't care for the interface. I'm wondering if anyone knows if the sorting behavior can be changed?

Could you switch back to outlook and try to use the new version?

There might be some calander settings in the settings part of thunderbird/betterbird that I'm not aware of but that's all the help I can give on that issue unfortunetly.

The calendar in the new Outlook really isn't that great unfortunately. There aren't many keystrokes for navigating through appointments. Outlook 365's calendar is much better; there are keystrokes (CTRL+Comma and CTRL+FullStop respectively) which take you sequentially back and forwards through appointments. But with the new Outlook, you just have to tab backwards and forwards through everything. And Kelly as for Betterbird, it might be worth exploring the menus to see what things do. There might be a View menu where you can change how things are arranged. Googling to find instructions might help too, even though they'll be written for sighted users. I googled to find out how to change the default view in Outlook 365, since by default, it groups messages by day, and you have to navigate past each day to move through your inbox. Not a smooth experience, but I googled how to get rid of that. I've been thinking of posting instructions for that on here actually.

You can use the feedback hub to write to microsoft about how you'd prefer shortcuts for the calander, I can't garentee they'd implement something new straight away but it's worth trying if the feature means that much to you.

The "old" Microsoft Outlook, as opposed to the emerging Web-based version that still lacks many features of its predecessor, has good screen reader accessibility.

Unfortunately, at least in my case, it crashed quite frequently, especially when accessing IMAP folders. If you're only using a Microsoft Exchange account (including Exchange Online), you may not be affected.

It also lacks desirable features such as the unified inbox.

The Mac version doesn't crash frequently and includes the unified inbox capability.

On balance, I'm not currently tempted to switch to Windows, and this is a good example of why.

Thunderbird is reasonably accessible and quite reliable. I use it regularly, but under Linux, not Windows. I'm not opposed to running Windows, but I have no reason to at the moment - and the downside is having to deal with the security and reliability issues, the updates, etc.

Hi Jason,
I can add my Gmail account to Outlook 365, but I have to authenticate it with the Google app on my phone, and then on my Windows PC, it only accepts the authentication with the Microsoft thing if I press Enter straight away on the dialogue box. I'm not joking, if I press Tab to the 'Apply' and 'OK' buttons and activate them, it keeps going round in a circle telling me that I'm using an unsupported browser to authenticate. According to some Microsoft forums, they're still using some remnents of Internet Explorer somewhere in the system, unbelievable! Windows isn't perfect; I'm just willing to put up with its imperfections more so than for other operating systems. When I get it going and working in the way I want, it does everything I need. And Brad, thanks for the advice about the Feedback hub. I've already upvoted some comments about the new Outlook and how bad it is in general. I left some feedback about the lack of keyboard shortcuts somewhere too. I'm interested in trying out other clients for my hotmail where I don't need a calendar. My Gmail is the one where I need the calendar, and Outlook 365 does the job for the time being. For people who don't want to pay for 365, the lack of a decent calendar is unfair, unless Betterbird's and Thunderbird's calendars do the job for some.