Outlook Express alternative – Substitutes for Outlook Express

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Outlook Express alternative – Substitutes for Outlook Express

Outlook Express is a free email program, also called an email client. It used to come bundled with Internet Explorer but this has been discontinued since version 7 of the web browser. This means Outlook Express is missing on Windows Vista.

But there is no need to be disheartened so quickly. There are many Outlook Express alternatives that you can use on your computer to download email. There are tons of email programs and email clients available; developed both by Microsoft and other reliable companies.

Microsoft’s alternatives to Outlook Express

The free alternative to Outlook Express under Windows Vista operating system is Windows Mail. This preinstalled email client serves as the default and can be considered the new version of Outlook Express.

The latest replacement for Outlook Express is Windows Live Mail. The Microsoft web sites offers Windows Live Mail as a free download and the program can be installed in a matter of minutes – please refer the corresponding articles for step by step instructions. FYI, Windows Live Mail is much more than a substitute for Outlook Express because it is not only an email and news client but also works as a blogging tool and an RSS reader – details can be found in Windows Live Mail features article.

And if you don’t mind shelling out a little money, $109.95 to be precise, you can get the big daddy of all email clients – Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

Non-Microsoft Outlook Express alternatives

Even if you are working on the Windows operating system; you are not confined to using products only from Microsoft. There are many programs that can substitute for Outlook Express quite nicely. The most popular non-Microsoft replacement for Outlook Express is the free Thunderbird program from Mozilla Corporation. IncrediMail is also a much loved program. Only recently Yahoo! released Zimbra Desktop that allows you to configure and setup multiple email accounts including Yahoo!Mail. There are actually so many email clients that it can get confusing. My suggestion is to use a reputable program and stick to it.

There are several advantages of using Outlook Express and other email program – the main benefit being downloading email from web servers and saving them on your computer. This means you would be able to access messages even without an internet connection; however, to download new email you do need to connect to the web server. Thus, a copy of all your messages can lie safely on your computer and you would no longer be worried of accidental deletions and account hacking. Also, most, if not all, email programs let you configure multiple email accounts so that you can collect messages from various sources and they would now be available at one place.