Setting up Email on Windows 7

Both Windows 7 and Windows vista don't come with an email client pre installed as in previous Windows versions like XP which have had the outlook express email client pre-installed.

This means you are free to install the client of your choice. So what clients are available. The two most popular are:

  • Windows Live Mail
  • Thunderbird

Windows Live mail is really an updated outlook Express and is a very simple email client that is easy to use and the ideal choice if you are already using Outlook Express.

Thunderbird is an open source email client that is growing in popularity and is much more powerful and complicated than Windows Live mail. It is a ideal choice for sophisticated email users.

You should note that outlook Express is not an option.

 However you should also be aware that you really don't need to Install an Email Client if your email provider supports web based access (most do) then you can use webmail.

Windows live mail is part of windows live essentials which you can download here. You can select only to install live mail and note the other components.

Thunderbird is available for download here.

Migrating Old Emails and Contacts

Many of you will already have emails and contacts on an existing computer and will want to move/migrate them on to the new one.

How exactly this is done will depend on how your existing email client is setup and what client you are using.

There is an excellent backup program for Mozilla thunderbird that will let you back up thunderbird on one PC and then restore it on another PC.

For outlook express you will need to do this manually. The exact procedure is described in this Microsoft article.

Although it is written for a backup/restore of outlook express it can be used for migrating from outlook express to windows live mail.

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