14 DAY TRIAL // Today's first topic is e-mail. Such a simple and easy way to communicate and, for some years now, to file-share. Everybody is familiar with the e-mail, what it does and its benefits for the users. Surprisingly, even my grandmother knows what e-mail stands for (electronic mail). I never thought she could tell me something new about this and yet she told me about the very beginning of e-mail. E-mail started back in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Among the first benefiters of this facility there were SDC's Q32 system and MIT's CTSS system. Yep, a pretty educated and "updated" lady my grandmother is!
It was easy back in the time, but nowadays the usefulness of e-mail is threatened by 3 enemies: spamming, phishing and e-mail worms.
Well, now we also have mail notifiers, programs designed to help us in checking our e-mail messages and to better sort them. Such a mail notifier is PopTray. It is a very small program (982 kb install kit) whose function is exactly the same with every other notifier's: notifies you at the receiving of a new message. But it does that its own way. Here's what Renier Craus, the author, says about it: "PopTray started as a small POP3 mail checker. I wrote it because I couldn't find a freeware program that had all the features I wanted". But does it include all the features we want? Let's take a peek!
First of all, it is an open-source and freeware TrayIcon mail notifier for Windows, which is absolutely fantastic. The extremely easy to use interface practically invites you to continue the testing of the software. The menu toolbar is aligned vertically on the right - disturbing at first, but a very good idea since the menu is unfolded in the left part and you can focus on the center for the settings.
The Options menu is the largest and contains the following: Interval (Timer interval for account), Defaults (e-mail program, sound and language), General Options, Advanced Options (user interface and miscellaneous), Mouse Buttons, Hot-Keys, the White/Black List (my favorite) and the Plug-ins (very important if you want the program to support mail servers other than POP3).
The Mail menu allows reading, deleting, checking, replying to and hiding the desired messages. It also has an option for deleting spam.
In the Accounts menu you can add an account, delete one and test them. Here you make all the necessary settings for your e-mails to be found by PopTray.
Rules menu is also very important as it allows you to establish some rules about the incoming messages (mail filtering).
I also have to add that PopTray is equipped with a great help menu, very well structured, that will most definitely come in handy if you get lost in the menu.
Some of the features of the program include: unlimited number of accounts, customizable toolbar (right-click on any option of the menu toolbar and customize), delete messages directly from the server (without downloading), play different notification sounds. PopTray allows you to run any .EXE file and also supports IMAP4, POP3SSL, Hotmail, etc. protocols (through plug-ins; the default is POP3).
What else can I say about PopTray? Oh, it also has command-line options: Multiple (allows multiple instances of PopTray) and Actions (some of them are: Check, RunClient, CheckShow, New, MarkSpam, SoundOn/Off, DelSpam, Window, AutoCheckOn/Off, etc.)
The Good
It is a very well developed software, has the most important options and features needed in a mail notifier and it is also freeware.
The Bad
I haven't discovered any search tool or option. You can try in the Rules menu, but it is a bit difficult. It also lacks the option of gathering messages into folders.
The Truth
It is great software, professionally designed; it has a very nice structure. The great advantage is that it does the job with a strong sense of responsibility, but unfortunately it lacks search and folder management options. I am pretty sure that in future versions those too will be added. The fact that it is open-source makes me believe that it'll soon develop into something very nice and useful. Other than the above mentioned flaws, it really deserves your attention and I strongly recommend using it.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
