Like Outlook 2013, the software can automatically determine your required server addresses and settings for the major mail providers. Yahoo Mail users, unfortunately, have to upgrade to the $19.99-a-year Mail Plus version to get server access. Using Thunderbird instead of the Web versions also means you won't have to look at ads. Checking the Help pages for any of these services turns up the POP3 or IMAP and SMPT (for outgoing email) server addresses for setup. So if you use AOL Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, or even the new, for example, you'll be able to set up Thunderbird as your mail client software. Though you can't set Thunderbird up with an Exchange server's full capabilities, you can hook it up using POP3 or IMAP servers. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. In addition, as with Mozilla's Firefox browser an Extended Support Release (ESR) is available for organizations that don't want automatic updates to upset their corporate software setups. In addition to Windows 7 and 8, Thunderbird runs on the earlier Vista and XP flavors, as well as on Mac OS X and Linux. Thunderbird is available for a lot more platforms than Outlook 2013 ($106.08 at Amazon) (Opens in a new window), which only runs on Windows 7 and Windows 8. In fact, even if you have no email account at all, Thunderbird lets you create one using a choice of partner services, which (for a subscription fee) even let you create an email using your last name as the domain name, like That's sure to impress all your contacts! Though it can't quite match all the whiz-bang features of Microsoft Outlook and that application's full support for Microsoft Exchange mail servers, it will suit a lot of users with a lot of different email scenarios-from those with custom server-based mail to webmail users.

If price or platform support are among your concerns when picking a desktop email client, then Mozilla Thunderbird (free) is hard to beat.

Lacks full support for Microsoft Exchange Server.

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Mozilla free email account