Thanks for the emails I received regarding the last column about “Secure P@55w0rdz“. Most of you commented on the spelling I used in that word. That is somewhat standard usage by geeks. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Apparently it caused a few of you to increase your passwords’ difficultly level which is a good thing. Several of you asked how to rate the strength of your password. Here is a site at Microsoft where you can check yours out, http://bit.ly/cG2pw0.
On to today… I received many questions about programs to read and send email. Today we will look at some of the most popular free ones. Don’t forget, “Ron likes free best!”, so that is all I will discuss today.
My old favorite was Microsoft Outlook Express; however, since companies always like to change things – they did. With the dawn of Windows 7, OE was done away with and replaced by Windows Live Mail, explore.live.com/windows-live-mail. This is a good email program but MS has something I like even better. If you do not want to add another program to your computer, MS has an online version which includes even more. There you will find email which does not require a download called Windows Live. You can get to it the old way at hotmail.com or the new way at mail.live.com. They go to the same site.
Next on my list is Thunderbird which is located at Mozilla.com. If that address looks familiar to you it is because they are also the company which created Firefox (a great browser you could try while there). Thunderbird has all the bells and whistles too, but make sure you only use IMAP in the setup if you know what it is. I personally don’t care for IMAP but that’s just me. To find out more about IMAP go to bit.ly/bYXOtk.
In my opinion those are the best for Windows users. I would also like to mention that if you use Google’s Gmail account, they made a big change just this week. Now Gmail is a little off topic since it is online only (although it can be added to the other two programs). However, if you have multiple Gmail accounts you should use this new feature.
Log into your favorite Gmail account because this will be set to default. Now, go to Settings / Accounts and Import / Google Account Settings and change “Multiple sign in” to on. Then add your other Gmail accounts, follow the directions and you will like it. After that you will be able to switch back and forth between those accounts without having to log off and back on. Nice feature Gmail…thanks!
