How to Totally Replace Outlook (in Windows)

For a very long time I was a faithful Outlook user. Well, that’s not true. I wasn’t really loyal to Outlook specifically or Microsoft generally. I just used Outlook at work and so I used Outlook at home. It was what I knew and I was used to it. So I stuck with it. But then I decided that it was time to really make the switch to IMAP and Outlook really bites at IMAP.

You know it does. If you try and use IMAP with Outlook you’ll get a message that says something like Your IMAP server has closed the connection. This may occur if you have left the connection idle for too long. Sure, you can change the timeout error, but it doesn’t matter what you set the value to, you still get the error. So that was a no-go. It was time to look elsewhere.

Though I had tried Thunderbird – more than once – I wasn’t really pleased with it. So I decided to try again, since I had never used it with IMAP. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the IMAP support in Thunderbird absolutely rocks. The only thing that doesn’t work well – with pair Networks, anyway – is the Create Folder option. That’s not to say that it doesn’t work, it’s just that if I want to create a folder that allows me to have subfolders in it, I have to use the webmail interface to do so. I’d like to be able to do that in Thunderbird. But that’s not a huge deal.

Only one issue with Thunderbird was that it does mail, and only mail. This was a huge jump coming from Outlook, which did mail, calendar and tasks. I tried the Mozilla options for calendar functions (Lightning and Sunbird), but I didn’t care for either. While I don’t use either extensively, I needed something, so I had to do a bit more looking.

The calendar was actually easy to find. I went with ReminderFox, an extension for Firefox that does reminders in an easy-to-use calendar format. It also offers ToDo lists and you can even add your own lists as well – but I only use it for calendar items, as I’m not happy with the way that the ToDo lists work (sorry guys, it just doesn’t work for me). It even works with Thunderbird, but since I keep Firefox open all day, I use it in Firefox instead.

Now I just needed to find a task list. This one was a bit harder, and I went through a number of alternatives. I even tried a few online options. But eventually I settled on ToDoList, a piece of freeware that is regularly updated and can do just about anything you want with your ToDo lists. It can load multiple lists, handle repeating events, do time tracking, categories, and just about anything you can throw at it. It is also updated regularly (as is ReminderFox).

With these three pieces of software – Thunderbird, ReminderFox and ToDoList – I haven’t missed a beat and I don’t miss Outlook at all. In fact, my dad asked me a question the other day and I had to load up my wife’s computer to try and figure something out for him. It had been that long since I had seen it, and so I had to look at hers to see what he needed!

ToDoList is a windows-based product, so if you’re looking for something cross-platform, it won’t quite meet your needs. But ReminderFox does a pretty good job, it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Check it out and you might be able to use it and Thunderbird, without ToDoList at all. Just remember – there are often options out there!

Have you tried any of these programs? What do you think about them? Have you found any other programs, or used any other alternatives that might work better? Let me know, as I’m now enjoying my newfound freedom, and I’m all about working smarter.