need help with email program please

I have Windows XP and cannot afford a different computer. (When can I will probably get Windows 7.)

I've been using Outlook Express as my major email program. It was working fine with my hughes.net email addresses. However, since my son cancelled his account with HughesNet and I set up my own account with HughesNet, I have not been able to add my 2 new email addresses, i.e. <snip1> and <snip2>. They show up as added under the Outlook Express "identity" box; but when I try to load Outlook Express using those new identities I get an error message.

I've spent so much time trying to fix this (even soliciting the help of HughesNet technisions) that all I want to do now is get an email program that will work with my Windows XP, even if it means uninstalling Outlook Express and reinstalling it or getting a new email program altogether.

Can anyone help me get an email program set up?

 

I suggest you remove your email addresses. Posting them in the forum is a way to quickly get some spam coming to your email addresses.

I suspect you simply have made some mistake in setting up the new email accounts in OE. Are you sure you have the correct Incoming and Outgoing server codes for HughesNet setup in OE?

Your comments about identities in OE puzzle me. Were you using Identities with your previous email address(es)? Using the Identities feature in OE is not necessary unless you specifically want to use it to separate access to email accounts for different users of the computer.

An email client called Thunderbird, from the folks that make the Firefox web browser, is a very good email client. I suggest you try it. You don't need to uninstall OE. Just give Thunderbird a try. It it works for you, then just ignore OE.

 

Email addresses removed.

 

Thank you both for helping, especially for removing my email addresses. I'm grateful.

I did double check the OE set up with HughesNet and the incoming and outgoing are set up right.

The separate identities were simply to help me keep my regular messages separated from those connected to my sales items...not necessary, just convenient.

I am going to try Thunderbird. Thanks for suggesting it.

 

Well, I messed that up good.

I did download the Thunderbird email program and as I was setting it up, I set it up as the "default" and said "yes" when it wanted to transfer my stuff from Outlook Express into it.

Since I have several identities in OE, what Thunderbird transferred was only one of those accounts, one I really wanted to get rid of. Now when I attempt to learn how to use Thunderbird, I have to sign in with a password I had been using with OE.

I then uninstalled Thunderbird thinking when I download and install it this time, I will say "no" do not transfer anything from OE; only this time I did not get the option for that. Instead, it turned into the very same Thunderbird I had initially said yes to.

So I uninstalled Thunderbird again and went to my control panel to uninstall OE; only I cannot find Outlook Express in my add/remove part of that control panel.

Now, I feel real stuck. How do I delete/uninstall OE, which I cannot find, and how do I install Thunderbird as a new installation unassociated with OE?

Sorry, technical stuff is very difficult for me.

 

... sorry, I tried to edit my last post but I was too slow. Below is what I was wanting to add.

So I uninstalled Thunderbird again and went to my control panel to uninstall OE; only I cannot find Outlook Express in my add/remove part of that control panel. I did find Outlook Express in my PC under "program files"; however, when I tried to delete that folder, I got the message I could not because it was being used by some program...not naming the program. (I did not have OE open nor any browser up at this time.) Then when I opened up that OE folder and attempted to delete the files inside that folder, they returned...yes, they disappeared for a few seconds as though they had actually been deleted, then they returned. So how on earth do I get rid of Outlook Express so I can hopefully download a clean copy of Thunderbird that does not have anything in it connected to OE?

 

I am letting you all know what was done in this matter.......

I contacted Microsoft and their Omnitechs told me they could remove Outlook Express for me. I let them download applets they needed to evaluate my PC and they found hundreds of "errors" and "malicious" files. I agreed to pay them $99.99 to fix those files because I was told Outlook Express was being disrupted from being removed by those files in some way. The next Omnitech spent hours (over 4 hours) cleaning those errors off my PC, saying some were in the registry.

I am not computer literate; so I trusted these Techs. At the end of these hours, I was told Outlook Express was part of my Windows XP program and could not be removed. That Tech was able to make sure it was not set as my "default" email program and to, also, make sure "Microsoft Outlook" was not set up as my "default" email program either.

Now, I cannot tell my PC is running any differently; however, I am trusting those two very kind talking and patient technicians did right by me and that now my PC does not have all those "error" and "malicious" files/registry keys on it.

I now will download the Thunderbird email program and, hopefully, set it up as my default email program.

 

We have let you down here. None of us made any real effort to help when your problems appeared reasonably straightforward to fix. We could have saved you your $100 and I'm sorry. It isn't how questions are usually treated here.

 

I see it from a different perspective. motdaugrnds made a hasty decision to contact Microsoft; he gave no indication here that he was thinking of calling Microsoft. As I recall, yesterday, I submitted a post in which I cited a video on removing OE via the Add or Remove Programs panel; I explained that OE is in the Windows Components part of the Add or Remove Programs panel, not in the list of programs in the main panel of Add or Remove Programs. I also commented on backing up the .dbx files that store OE messages. That post has disappeared. Why? It was on point.

Sadly, I have to say motdaugrnds gained nothing be calling MS. Consider 2 or 3 points in his last post:

So, the techs initially told him they could remove OE for him but later told him it could not be removed. They either lied in the beginning or they did a poor job of communicating. If they meant to say that "removing" OE via the Add or Remove Programs panel merely makes OE invisible to the user but does not truly remove the underlying program, I can accept that; this is true for "removing" IE via the Windows Components panel so OE may fall in the same bucket. But, apparently, no such explanation was provided by the MS techs.

Next point:

So, after spending $100 and over 4 hours on the phone, he cannot notice any difference is how his computer runs.

Next point:

I am very much inclined to think running CCleaner's registry cleaner would have been a better step than letting those "technicians" manually remove "hundreds of 'errors'".

Next point:

This is could have simply been done without the long session with MS. Thunderbird could have been installed and set as the default email program without ever contacting a paid support service. It would very likely have worked the same, had he done this, as it will work now.

 

Can't possibly argue with any of that usaf, only it simply never appeared.

 

I suspect that's right for the big name manufacturers, but the smaller guys can still do it. In fact ordered a new Win 7 Pro x64 just this morning from PC Specialist here in the UK. They offer Win 7 or 8.1 on all their PCs and unlike the OEMs you get an installation disk too, not just (or even) a recovery partition. You also get better prices and better after-sales support should you need it. There are surely such firms in the US.