 | |
 Mail running onWindows 10 with the lighttheme | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | November 30, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-11-30) |
| Stable release | |
| Operating system |
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| Predecessor | Outlook Express,Windows Live Mail |
| Successor | Outlook for Windows |
| Type | Email client |
Mail (laterMicrosoft Outlook) is a discontinuedemail client developed byMicrosoft and included inWindows Vista and later versions of Windows.[2][3] It was available as the successor toOutlook Express, which was either included with, or released forInternet Explorer 3.0 and later versions ofInternet Explorer. It was succeeded byOutlook for Windows.
Windows Mail can be traced to a pre-release version of Outlook Express 7 included in early builds of Windows Vista (then known by its codename, "Longhorn"). Outlook Express 7 introduced various changes to the user interface[4] and relied onWinFS for the management and storage of contacts, email, and other data.[5] It supportedPost Office Protocol (POP) andInternet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) email protocols, but no longer supported Microsoft's proprietary mail-over-HTTP scheme,[6] an omission inherited by Windows Mail.[7]IPv6 is fully supported.[8]
Windows Mail was formally announced on September 16, 2005 atChannel 9 and positioned as the successor to Outlook Express.[9] Windows Mail is a fundamentally new application with significant feature additions (many which were previously exclusive toInternet Explorer orMicrosoft Outlook) and fundamental revisions to the storage architecture and security mechanisms. Identities in Outlook Express are replaced withWindows user profiles. The storage of items is managed by aExtensible Storage Enginedatabase — the same engine used byActive Directory andMicrosoft Exchange — with messages and newsgroups stored as separateeml andnws files instead of in a singledbx file; the database is transactional and periodically creates backups of items to protect against data loss, which eliminates thesingle point of failure design of Outlook Express. Account configuration information is also no longer stored in theWindows Registry or in a singledbx file—instead, Windows Mail relies onXML files stored within a user profile alongside email, making it possible to simply copy an entire email store to another machine. Windows Mail supports theWindows Search platform, allowing communications to be searched directly from within the Windows Shell.[10]
Windows Mail is also intended to be a significantly more secure offering than Outlook Express by includingBayesian spam filtering,email attachment blocking,junk email filtering functionality of Microsoft Exchange, thePhishing Filter ofInternet Explorer 7, andtop-level domain blocking.[10] All of these features, excluding Internet Explorer Phishing Filter integration, were included in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 as part ofMicrosoft Office 2003.[11]
Windows Mail has a documentedapplication programming interface (API) based onComponent Object Model (COM).[12] Except forSimple MAPI messaging functionality, the API of Outlook Express was undocumented.[13]
Windows Mail is excluded fromWindows 7 in favor ofWindows Live Mail, part ofWindows Essentials.
Mail inWindows 8 and8.1 is a completely new application based on theWindows Runtime, designed in accordance with Microsoft'sMetro design language philosophy, as aWindows Store app that runs in either full-screen or split-screen viewing modes; many of its features are hidden inthe charms or in the app bar (an initially hiddentoolbar) at the bottom of the screen that is revealed by right-clicking or by swiping upward. Mail is updated independently from the operating system and is bundled withCalendar andPeople—it cannot be installed or uninstalled individually.
Preset server configurations forOutlook.com,Gmail,AOL Mail, andYahoo! Mail are available;Exchange Server orIMAP accounts can be configured,[14] but Mail does not directly supportPOP3.
Mail inWindows 10 and11 has preset server configurations forOutlook.com,Office 365,Gmail,iCloud, andYahoo! Mail.[15][16][17]AOL Mail, as well as other Exchange Server and IMAP accounts, can still be added, andPOP3 support has returned.[15][17][18] Newsgroup/Usenet support remains absent.[19] Mail and Calendar are stillUniversal Windows apps and are in the same app container, but their third sibling, People, is moved out of this container and is a standalone app by itself.
Users can set Mail to use the systemtheme or choose a custom accent color, background image, and light/dark preference. It has multi-window support and can open email messages in a new window.[20] Emails are listed in Mail's jumplist. Mail uses a settings panel, email sorting tools in the second pane, and a toolbar in the viewing pane. Like the Vista version of Mail, this version's important controls are readily visible. Accounts can be grouped and relabeled, and custom folders can be created, edited, or deleted within the app.[21] It is possible to use Outlook.com aliases and @mentions with Mail.
LikeMicrosoft Outlook, Mail allows users to set up Quick Actions, such as Delete, Set Flag, and Archive, to respond to messages from system notifications and swipe gestures.[22]
In December 2019, Mail added non-removable advertisements for theMicrosoft Outlook mobile app.[23]
In 2023, Microsoft announced that beginning in 2024, new Windows 11 devices would be shipped with the new Outlook for Windows, and that the default Windows Mail and Calendar applications would be replaced by the end of 2024.[24]
Support for Windows Mail ended on December 31, 2024.[25]
As withMicrosoft Outlook andOutlook Express, Mail usesCtrl+E to invoke the search. All other Microsoft products useCtrl+F.
