I?ve been trying to rely on the built-in applications inside Windows Vista as must as possible, to get a feel for how much (or how little) they?ve evolved. I think it?s all too easy for experienced geeks to get a new operating system and immediately load it up with all of their own favourite applications – overlooking the built-in applications. That does a disservice to the OS itself, and robs you of finding out how good or bad the included applications really are – let?s face it, the less applications an OS has installed (any OS), the more stable it?s going to be. Out of the box, Vista is a surprisingly well-rounded tool, offering almost everything you need built-in.
One app in particular I?ve been relying on heavily is Windows Mail, the replacement for Outlook Express. I have it configured on every Vista computer in my home to check my personal email, and my business email accounts are only checked with Outlook 2007. On the whole, Windows Mail is a pretty good app: strong spam filtering (though I thankfully don?t get THAT much spam), easy to use, nice user interface, spell checking, and fairly snappy. I?d have no trouble recommending it to people who want to use it as their primary email application. There are some things that I really don?t like though. Yeah, that?s right, it?s bullet time.
continued @ Jason Dunn Blog
