Hi all !

I've been using Eudora for a very long time (8 years or so). Basically, I've never used a different email client, not even outlook.

However, I've migrated to Firefox a couple of months ago, and since I'm so happy with that upgrade, I'd like to do the same now with my email client.

There is an underlieing reason too : next year I would like to start using Linux, and since both Firefox and Thunderbird exist on windows AND Linux, this would mean that I would be able to use the same software on both OS'es.

First, I'd like to say that I have NO problems setting up accounts and stuff, and getting TB to run properly. That works just fine. I just would like to see some things different, and I'm sure they're changeable, I just can't figure out how myself.

1) I've made a habit of installing all my stuff on my D-drive, never on my C-drive. This is because I reformat and reinstall pretty often (every 3-4 months), and this saves me a lot of time.

With Eudora this was easy : I put it on the d-drive, and I didn't even have to re-install it when I had just formatted my c drive. Making a new shortcut to the .exe was enough. Eudora works just fine and doesn't clutter the registry.
My setup is now like this :
d:\eudora (where all the mail is stored too)
d:\eudora\attach (for all the attachments)
and a couple of other Eudora subdirectories that aren't important here. The idea is that EVERYTHING is in the d:\eudora directory, which make this email stuff very easy to manage.

Now, with TB, things are a bit different. For one, even if I tell it it has to install into d:\thunderbird, it STILL insists on using c:\documents and settings\name\thunderbird\xxxxxx as the directory in which the mail is stored. Strange. Why is that?

1) I've found out that via the TB profiles, I can create a new profile, in which I can tell it where it should store it's mail. (in this case d:\TBmail). However, it still creates a default profile on c:\documents and settings\... . Isn't there a way of telling TB to immediately install onto the d drive, and leave the c drive completely alone ?

2) What's with these profiles anyway ? What are they for ? The first time I ever heard of those was with Firefox, but I never had to use them. What's their purpose ? I assume it's because multiple users would each have "their" own version of the browser/email client. (is this a Linux thing ?)
If I create several profiles, how can I switch from one to the next ? Do I always have to use the thunderbird.exe -p option ?
I've noticed that I can delete that default profile on my c-drive. But even when I delete those there are still 2 files left on my c: (profiles.ini and registry.dat) Can I delete those files safely (and that thunderbird directory too), so that my c drive would become completely "thunderbird-free"?

3) Those "local folders" in TB ? What's with those?? What's their use ??
It seems that TB looks at these as if they were an account too ?? (because they look almost exactly the same as my manually configuered account - settings and lay-out) And it seems that these "local folders" have copied my account settings for their own use too ?
Why is that ? I can 't see the use of that (though I'm sure there is one)

When I made a new profile, and TB started, the account wizard was loaded. After filling in everything, I came to the point where I had to type in my smtp server. Above this field there was a question : "uncheck this option to save email from this account in it's own directory. This will make this account a top-level account (what's this ?). If not, it will become a part of the global INBOX under "local maps".

I unchecked it because I don't want to use those global maps, basically because I don't know what they are for.
Was I correct in doing this ? Could somebody please enlighten me ?

4) Attachments. I would like to have all of my attachments saved in the folder d:\TBmail\attach (or maybe in d:\tbattach - not sure yet). Though this is a simple setting, I've noticed that when I receive emails with attachments, that they are clickable and viewable in TB, but still not saved on my HD. (where are they then ?? I'm using POP3, so I'm sure they MUST be on my HD somewhere, only I can't find them)
I have to say to TB each time to save them. Is this normal ?

That's about all I can think of. Could somebody please enlighten me on those subjects ? I've checked on the net and read several FAQ's but they were not much use. Is there a manual for TB somewhere ?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me !!

Archeon

This is what I know about Thunderbird...

(Sorry, was just working with the LRCDB plugin on that particular album, so it was in the forefront of my mind.)

OK, let me rephrase that then : anybody know something about Thunderbird, the email client ?

Right. Because in both OSes, that's where user-changeable data exists. If you had a multi-user machine and an administrator installed Thunderbird, you wouldn't be able to write your data to the installation directory. And if you could, would you really want your application data in a place where others would access it? I suppose they could create .../install/users/wfaulk/data and .../install/users/archeon/data, but it's not the accepted way to do it. It's just that only recently has Windows bothered to come up with a standard location for this stuff.

Regarding attachments, at least for Outlook, when you open them they are put in a hidden system folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKC1\

Does TB do something similar? I found this out by opening the attachment from inside Outlook then choosing 'File/Save' from the application that was called. It defaults to the hidden directory in the Save dialog box.

-Zeke

The Local folders was first made for people that use Imap and wanted to copy messages to have offline. I think it was around .9 that they added the option for Pop mail settings to have the account put the mail into One of these three options:
Global Mail Box (Local Folders Account)
Inbox for this account
Inbox for different account

Now the option you pick depends on how you like to view your mail and if you use more than 1 Pop mail service? I myself have three different accounts and have the email stored in each accounts inbox.
Profiles are very nice and the fact that they are stored in Documents and Settings means if you encrypt your documents folders no one else will get to your email when looking at your files. Unless they are on the machine with your account. Also since Windows XP has the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" the mail in the Documents and Settings will get backed up.

The file attachment can be saved to a location, in the options click on attachment and select "Save all attachments to this folder" select folder.

Oh and you might want to read this
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/06/1557216

You may be able to move your Documents and Settings folder onto a different drive. That way you can preserve all the unique data in there the next time you wiupe your installation drive. Otherwise, Thunderbird will be the least of your worries. Or you can leave it where it is and make sure to always back up that folder hierarchy.

I thought perhaps TweakUI could do the move, but it only handles some of the special sub-folders for the current user account. Likely another tool out there or a registry hack and manual file/folder move.

When programs didn't support multi-user environments, people complained. Now that they do... People complain. Some programs offer settings so you can override the behaviour whichever way you want. Haven't done a final install/switch to Thunderbird yet. I will for both XP and Mac OS though. (For Mac OS I've already moved my /Users/ hierarchy off the root partition to somewhere else for this same reason.)

Bruno

Because every so many time I make a backup of those attachments. OK, so I could tell TB to save all those attachments in a certain place, but I suppose the attachments also stay in the emails as well, effectively doubling the harddrive space these attachments occupy ?
Call me picky, but I don't like that.

But I also realise it's probably only because I'm used to it being done in a different way for years now though...

Very slick, Cy. I didn't know that one.

It doesn't sound like that would be too hard to write a Thunderbird extension for. In the meantime, you should be able to use the "View" dropdown to select a filter that shows you only your messages with attachments. You might have to create it, but I think that Thunderbird ships with such a filter already there.

I didn't (manually) mod the registry, I'll see if I can dig something up.

Found it:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Changing_Profile_Folder_Location

It didn't work straight off, so be prepared to fiddle with it.

Also found this:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=204381&sid=0848f509b50464f63ffcc7977555fc14

And if you download the calendar component (very good IMO) and want it to start up at the same time as Thunderbird you need to add these flags to your command line:

-mail -calendar

Quote:
If there was a Linux version of it, I wouldn't even be considering this migration.

You can run it under Linux using Wine. One of the programs winetools offer to install is Eudora 6.2. I haven't had the chance to try it yet, but since I'm also a long time user of Eudora, I plan to install it on my Linux partition on my laptop.

Stig