Windows 7 Mail Support

Is it missing?

It seems unbelievable that Microsoft would no longer ship an operating system without including some sort of mail client.

Outlook Express was included with Windows 98. Outlook Express also worked with Windows 95. It was updated over the years and was still included with Windows XP.

Windows Vista shipped with a new email client: Windows Mail.

It would seem safe to assume that Windows 7 would, of course, have some sort of an email programas well.

This turns out to be incorrect. Windows 7 does not ship with any kind of bundled email client.

Is this a bad thing?

For the less tech-savvy, perhaps. There is no icon on the desktop that puts a connection your email just a few clicks away.

On the other hand, it allows users to consider the choices.

One of the choices is Windows Live Mail, a free download.

You have many other choices, including Mozilla Thunderbird (free) and Microsoft Outlook (included with Microsoft Office), to name just a few.

So how much of a problem is it that Microsoft has dropped any kind of an email program in Windows 7?

I suggest that this should rate pretty low on your list of concerns.

Microsoft still provides a free email client, you just have to take the extra step of downloading it (easy for most people with a high-speed connection).

You do have many other choices of email program, free for the downloading.

Many users, especially in the corporate world, end up using Microsoft Outlook, for compatibility with the corporate server, and more importantly, to share the calendar and appointment/meeting request systems with others.

The lack of a bundled email client is not a major loss for Windows 7.