14 DAY TRIAL // How much time do you waste with checking your email box? I know I waste a lot with logging into GMail or Yahoo! And to be frank time is something I run out of. This issue forced me into starting my search for an email client able to retrieve my emails from the free email accounts I have. And as every account has a different password, you can imagine the effort. Thank god there are password managers that keep safe all this data.
I searched and I searched and finally I found what I was looking for and, on top of everything, the application is free. ePrompter supports creating email accounts for AOL, AltaVista, Earthlink, Email.com, Go.com, Hotmail, Juno, Lycos, Mail.com, Mindspring, MSN, Netscape, OneBox, POP3, Rediffmail, USA, Yahoo and hundreds of other email domains - all at the same time.
The installer is 911KB large and the installation is very quick, most of it being the wizard designed to help you set up your first account. The interface of the application has been neglected by the developer in favor of the functionality and ease of use. I would say that this is one of the major downsides of the application as a first impression. The looks are oldish and - to be frank - not too appealing.
A very small window will shelter all of your accounts which can be differentiated by assigning a colored circle to each of them (if you do not assign them they will be set by default by the software). Making the difference between the accounts can be a tough thing if you have two or three accounts with the same ID. That's why the developer made available the option of making a description of the account.
ePrompter can sit still in the system tray or it can be configured to rotate through each account, changing the colors and displaying the number of the messages in the respective email account inbox. Furthermore, the rotating time can be set up by the user from the Notification options (Menu>Setup>Notification). Also, whenever a new email is received you can choose between the two audio alerts available (Jingle and Bass Riff).
Checking the inboxes from all the accounts can be set to a user defined time interval (the default value is 15 minutes, but you can set it to check the mail every minute). In order to keep track of all the emails you receive, ePrompter supports starting with Windows option. Also, in the System option of the software menu you can choose to place an icon on the desktop in the Start Menu of Windows or both (if you find the icons crowding your desktop reversing the process is available).
What would be an email client without an address book. Eprompter provides the user with a simple address book that will store only the name and the email of the persons. A drawback in this regard is the fact that you cannot prompt the message writing window and automatically enter the email address. But a copy/paste process will do the trick even if it takes a bit longer.
Reading the messages also offers minimal options and no images will be displayed in the reading box. The messages marked with "X" will automatically be deleted from the server at the next update. So you have to be careful with deleting the messages, as you will not be able to get them back again. The nastiest thing about reading is that you will not be able to see the attachments you get. If you do not get to see the received attachments do not expect to be able to send any.
Every account can be protected by a password, for either viewing or sending messages.
The Good
ePrompter is able to receive emails from a myriad of email accounts from different providers. Securing your accounts with a password is a good idea if you are not the only one using the computer or if the persons using your computer are not trustful.
The Bad
Not being able to receive attachments is not a very good idea. At least notifying the user that there is an attachment to that message would have been great. The same for sending attachments.
The interface is not brightly drawn, but users can overlook this aspect if all the options necessary are available.
The Truth
I see ePrompter as a very elaborate version of instant messaging tool. That's my personal opinion as you cannot view attachments and sending/receiving messages are the main options you can use. But I have to admit that supporting so many different email providers is a feature that you do not see very often in email clients. The main advantage is that you will no longer have to type in the mail server as the software automatically recognizes it.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
