PC Help: Installing Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is an email program that can be used to replace Outlook Express or Windows Mail. Unlike Outlook Express it has a junk mail filter to remove spam that helps to avoid this nuisance.

In addition to email it can read RSS news feeds but that will be dealt with in a future article.

The first step is to download the Thunderbird software. When the download has finished, double click on the file to start the installation wizard. Windows will warn you that the download has not been signed, click on Run because we can trust this file.

After the files have been extracted the installation wizard starts. Click on Next, read the agreement and then select 'I accept the terms of the agreement' and click on Next again. Leave the Standard installation selected and click on Next again to complete the installation.

When it has finished, leave the option 'Launch Mozilla Thunderbird now' select and click on Finish.

There may be a warning from the firewall on the computer telling you that a new program is trying to connect to the internet. As Thunderbird will need to do this to download the emails, click on the 'Remember this setting' and then on accept. The actual message may vary between different firewalls.

Thunderbird can import emails and settings from Outlook Express. This isn't the case for this workshop so select 'Don't import anything' and then click on Next. The new account wizard will start automatically when Thunderbird launches. Click on the Email Account option and then click on Next.

Type your name as you want it to appear to recipients in the top box and then enter your email address in the box below. Click on Next. Select between POP or IMAP depending on your account. Enter the name of the server and then the outgoing server, also known as the SMTP server. Sometimes this has the same name as the incoming server, sometimes it is different. Click on Next

The incoming and outgoing usernames are the one used to log into the email account. Sometimes it is the entire email address, or it may be just the first part before the @ symbol. Click on next.

It is possible to give the account a name at this point. This is most useful if you plan to use Thunderbird with more than one email address. Click on Next to see a summary of all of the settings for the email with the option to download messages now. Leave this option selected and click on Finish. There may be another warning from the firewall as Thunderbird connects to the internet to download emails.

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