Moving Thunderbird (email, accounts, settings, calendar, message filters, and address book) to a New Computer:

This Method of Transfering your Thunder Bird email accounts preserves ALL your Thunderbird email accounts, settings, message filters, and address book.

1. Install Thunderbird on the new computer / account:

You can install Thunderbird by downloading it from the Mozilla.com website here. Once you have downloaded the program to your computer, double-click on it to start the installation.

2. Copy your  Thunderbird profile to the new computer /account.

After thunderbird is installed, copy the “Profiles” folder/directory from your old computer/account to where the profiles folder is on the new computer (often in C:\Users\Owner\Application Data\Thunderbird). This will replace the profiles folder created when Thunderbird was installed. This folder should be fairly large in size depending on how much email you have.

3. Copy the Profiles.ini file to the new computer / account.

Once you have copied the Profiles folder to your new computer / account , you need to tell Thunderbird where that profile is, and what it is called.  This is accomplished by copying the profile.ini file into the same directory/folder you copied the “Profiles” folder into  (often in C:\Users\Owner\Application Data\Thunderbird).  Alternately, you can edit the existing “Profiles.ini” file to tell it which profile to load (see below).

Editing the “Profiles.ini” File:

1. Go to the profiles.ini file (often in C:\Users\Owner\Application Data\Thunderbird) and double-click on it to open it.  The contents should look something like this: (between the horizontal lines)

_________________________________________________

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/m1gu4r32.default

_______________________________________________

The portion that you need to edit is the last line that says: Path=Profiles/m1gu4r32.default.

2. Change the part after the forward slash (/) to the name of the profile that you copied over from the old computer/account.

The name of the profile can be found by simply double-clicking on the “Profiles” folder and observing the name of the folder located inside.

You can simply type the name in the “profiles.ini” files in place of the name that was there.  A quick way to accomplish this is to simply click on the folder once, press the F2 key on your keyboard, press and hold the “Ctrl” key (Windows) “Command” key (Mac) press the letter “c” on the keyboard and release both keys.  Go into the “profiles.ini” file and select the portion of text after the slash in the last line and press the “Ctrl” key (Windows) “Command” key (Mac) and press the letter “v” on your keyboard and release them both.  This will effectively copy the name of that folder/profile and paste it after the forward slash (/) where it needs to be.

3. Save the changes to the file and close it.

4. Open Thunderbird (all your emails, accounts, message filters, calendar, and contacts should appear).

Your TrueStar Technology Expert

Thunderbird Calendar (Lightning)

Thunderbird has many functionalities, one of them is a calendar. Thunderbird calendar (known as Lightning) is a practical, easy-to-install, calendar that features a audible reminders and a number of other nice features. I will run through downloading and installing the calendar into Thunderbird.

Downloading The Calendar (Lightning)

To download Lightning, click here. Lightning is provided by Mozilla and can be added as an “Add-on” to your Thunderbird Email program.

1. After clicking on the link to download lightning, you will be presented with the Mozilla web-page where you can click on whichever version of the software you need to download (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Other Systems such as OS2 and Solaris).

2. After clicking on the link that represents your Operating System, you will be presented with a download (represented here in Firefox) :

3. Once you have selected your Operating System type, you will be presented with a download button for that OS type:

4. Click on the “Download Now” button to start your download. You may be presented with a dialog box indicating the download name, type, etc. :

5. Make sure you click on “Save to Disk” or such related option to save the file to your hard drive. Note where you tell this file to download to, you will need it shortly.

Installing the Calendar into Thunderbird

6. Once the download is complete, you may go ahead and launch Thunderbird. When Thunderbird is up and running, follow the instructions below to install the Calendar Add-on:

1. Click on “Tools” in the file menu.

2. Click on “Add-ons”

3. Click on “Install” (located at the bottom-left hand side of the “add-ons” dialog box:

4. Go to the location on you downloaded the file to and click on it to select it and click on “open” (depends on your OS). The name of the calendar add-on is: lightning-0.8-tb-win.xpi :

7. You will be presented with the “Install Add-on” Dialog box: You may click on “Install Now” to begin the installation.

8. Once the installation is complete, you will be presented with the Add-on dialog box, you may click on “Restart Thunderbird” at this point to complete the installation process and make the calendar available:

The calendar will be available in Thunderbird on the right-hand side. You may switch between full calendar view, tasks view, and email view by clicking on the respective buttons (”mail”, “calendar”, or “tasks”)  at the bottom of your inbox folders at the bottom left portion of Thunderbird:

Here is a quick peek at a calendar with an example event:

Adding an Event:

To add an event to the calendar, double-click the location on the calendar (such as the date/time) that you would like to schedule an event for, you will be presented with the following event dialog: (You can add the title for your event, the time you would like to schedule it for, and whether or not you should receive an audible reminder).

Once an event is added, it will appear in your calendar with the time of the event, followed by name of the event:

Enjoy!

Your TrueStar Technology Expert

Mac OS Leopard’s Mail

Setting up your email in Mac OS Leopard is a snap. As usual, the interface is clean and friendly which make configuring things a simplified experience. Ill run through setting up a POP (Post Office Protocol) account in Mail, I will include plenty of graphics to help along the way.

Setting it Up

1. Go ahead an open up Mail if don’t already have it open.

2. Click on Mail on your Menu and then click on preferences:

3. Make sure “Accounts” is selected:

4. Click on the “Plus” sign to add your account:

5. Enter the relevant information (such as name/nick-name, password, and email address) in the fields provided and click on “continue”.

6. Enter your incoming mail server (this is the server you will use to download your email) settings:

7. Enter your “outgoing server” or SMTP (this is the server you will use to send your email) settings and click on “continue”:

8. Choose whether or not to use SSL on your outgoing server (an option that is ISP dependent) and click “continue”:

9. You will be presented with your email setup summary, be sure the “take account online” check box is selected to immediately activate your account and click on “create”:

Editting your information:

To edit your information at a later date, simply open mail, select preferences, click on accounts, and make sure “account information” is selected. You may edit your information in the fields provided.

TrueStarTE,

Your TrueStar Technology Expert

Setting Up and Maintaining Email

Setting up and maintaining a email account in your email program, should be a breeze. After you have setup your email program, you should expect a clean, intuitive, interface to help you manage your emails. Lastly and most importantly your email program should include plenty of security built in, this will assist in maintaining the integrity of your email communications experience.

Noticeable Program

One program that I would like to point out, that includes these features, is Mozilla Thunderbird. Mozilla Thunderbird is an email program that is designed by Mozilla, a reputable developer that has a great browser known as “Firefox” available to the public. I have used Mozilla Thunderbird for an extended period of time and have found it to measure up to these standards.

I will go through the basic setup and operation of Mozilla Thunderbird as well as explore some of it’s finer points. Lets get started with some of the finer points associated with a good email program that are available in Thunderbird.

Finer Points:
One of the major benefits of using a Mozilla Thunderbird, is the simple, clean interface. If you open Thunderbird, you will be presented with a fully customizable interface that provides for an excellent experience as you manage the emails you send and receive. As you will note in the provided graphic, the main interface is simply divided up into two basic sections. The section on the left is designed to provide you with basic information on the email, RSS, and other accounts that are setup in your email program. The section on the right-hand side is simply to display more detailed information on any item you click on the left-hand side. The left-hand side lists your the email or RSS accounts that you have setup. A third space appears at the bottom of the right-hand side displaying relevant information for any attachments you may receive in your emails.

Safety and Security:

Thunderbird has built in security features such as anti-phishing, Remote Image Protection, and Junk Mail Filtering. These features help protect you against fake websites that claim to be your bank, or other association that maintains your private information. Spam is automatically directed into folders designated for emails of that type, and you can train Thunderbird to recognize certain types of emails with a simple click. Thunderbird also includes updates that are automatically downloaded and installed to keep your mail as safe as possible.

More coming…

Your TrueStar Technology Expert.

  Welcome to TrueStar Computer Solutions… “TrueBlog”!

In this blog, we will discuss most anything technologically related… whether it be the latest computer Operating System technology (Linux, Apple, Windows based), computer hardware, third-party software, or whether it be as simple as the latest gadgetry. Drop by and take a peek at what’s going on, and hey, pop us a quick question or pass us a comment! Thanks, and… Enjoy!

Your TrueStar Technology Expert