Mozilla Thunderbird 17.0.6

Mozilla Thunderbird Editor's Review

Get access to your email with one of the easiest to use Windows apps available today.

If you like the convenience of mail in the cloud but prefer a dedicated email client, then this one is for you. Mozilla has one of the best compromises available. Thunderbird for Windows is one of the best email clients and it has all of the benefits of one of the best browsers in the world.

Mozilla Thunderbird's Mail Account Setup Wizard helps you quickly and easily setup access to your mail accounts.  Prior to this feature being here, you had to know your IMAP, SMTP, and SSL/TLS settings. Now all you need to provide is your name, email address, and password. Once entered, the email account set up wizardry will check our database and find the email settings for you. Moments later, you have access to your mail account.

If you've used Firefox, Thunderbird will be familiar to you, as the interfaces are similar – both are tabbed.  The user experience is similar and users of one will find it easy to use the other. In fact, the user experience across all Mozilla apps are similar, and users on any platform will be instantly at home. Double clicking on any individual message will open it. You can keep multiple emails open at one time, without cluttering up your screen. A tab menu on the Tab toolbar helps you switch between tabs. When you exit Thunderbird, open tabs will be saved; and will be restored when you reopen Thunderbird.

App Pro’s: Firefox companion, automated updates, easy to use, FREE

App Con’s: tabbed mail interface may not work for everyone

Conclusion: Thunderbird is simple and easy to use. Once installed, keeping it up to date is easy, as updates are automatically pushed to your PC.  With its One Click address book you can easily add contacts from the messages you receive. The app is easy to use and offers a wealth of features that make it one of the best Windows email clients available.  The fact that it's free just makes this a no brainer.