Inside WinMail

Microsoft e-mail

• Outlook is the e-mail, calendar, task and contact management program that you can buy as a stand-alone product or as part of Microsoft Office. It has a very good Junk Mail feature.
• Outlook Express is the default e-mail program in all versions of Windows before Vista. It is not like Outlook in any way other than the name. It does not have a Junk Mail feature thanks to a court decision on competing corporate interests that neglected to consider consumer interests.
• Windows Mail is the default e-mail program in Windows Vista. It is based on Outlook Express but uses a completely different (and far superior) file system. It has the same Junk Mail feature found in Outlook.
• Windows Live Mail is Microsoft’s new name for what everyone else still calls Hotmail. It is not an e-mail program. It is an e-mail web service which can be used in any modern browser such as Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. It requires that you logon to Windows Live ID, formerly known as Passport. Follow developments at the Windows Life Mail blog.
• Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta is a downloadable version of Windows Mail for Windows XP and Vista that supports Windows Live Mail (Hotmail). It has most of the features of Windows Mail, including Junk Mail, along with new ones for linking with other Microsoft web services, such as targeted advertising. Follow developments at the Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta blog.

Free e-mail for Windows

• Thunderbird is from Mozilla, the same open-source movement that makes Firefox. It is a serious rival for Outlook Express and Windows Mail. It has built-in Junk Mail filtering, and can be enhanced by a growing number of extensions.
• Pegasus Mail is free for personal use. It has very powerful message rules and filtering, but does not support NNTP newsgroups.