Published on by

As you probably know already, I have recently got a laptop with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 operating system preinstalled. Despite me being very unimpressed by the OS itself I will keep it so I can rant about things I believe are broken from a standpoint of an average user and this article is the first in the series.

I am one of the geeks who still smirk at the web based email. The reasons are many — let's just say that I don't like the idea of my personal data being online 24/7/365 and I hate built-in advertisement.

So, I dutyfully configured Windows Mail to use it as my email client and here are the things I found annoying:

Windows Mail - Security Through Nagging

The above Security dialog is something you will see each time you start Windows Mail if you set it to use secure (SSL) connection between you and the mail server, and if your email server name (in my case imap.levicki.net) doesn't match the name listed in the security certificate's CN field (*.loopiasecure.com).

Both Outlook Express and Outlook 2003 do the same stupid thing — I really don't understand why I even expected Windows Mail to be any better. User Interface Rule #1: Do not nag the user. If you really have to, then at least allow the nag to be disabled permanently.

Truth to be told, that message box serves as a warning that the security of the communication channel may have been compromised and gives you the chance to respond, but it is completely useless if it shows up each time you start the email client, and you stop paying attention to it.

It would be much better if I could tell the email client to allow the communication if the CN=*.loopiasecure.com, but not if anything else changes. For the sake of comparison, Mac OS X built-in email client iMail at least allows you to disable the warning.

What else is wrong with Windows Mail at a glance?

  • Modal dialogs
  • Inability to sort outgoing messages
  • Inability to customize columns separately for Inbox and Sent Items (From: column is useless in Sent Items folder)

Surely there must be more, but I am tired right now. If you want to suggest annoying things for the above list feel free to contact me.