File|New|Existing Mail Account, for anyone else who reads this.

"Get a new account" means exactly what it says; it takes you to a chosen partner to sign up and PAY for a new email address and account.

Most users, including our OP, simply want to add an existing email account and its address to Thunderbird. "Existing" being the key word here.

Zenos said

File|New|Existing Mail Account, for anyone else who reads this. "Get a new account" means exactly what it says; it takes you to a chosen partner to sign up and PAY for a new email address and account. Most users, including our OP, simply want to add an existing email account and its address to Thunderbird. "Existing" being the key word here.

I saw no way to add my existing account, or do anything else without signing up -- I could only exit. the only other screen I saw had no options to do anything -- not the usual T-Bird screen, which I had used in the past. All I got was a massage that it could not communicate with T-Bird -- of course not, the computer is now off line, but that shouldn't stop me from installing, configuring, and migrating messages -- to see if the import even worked.

I'm not at all sure you're installing Thunderbird. None of that fits with my recollections of what it does from cold.

Thunderbird (or Mozilla) don't offer accounts, and there is no mail server it would try to connect to. There is an update server, and if it couldn't reach that, then likely a firewall has intervened.

A screen shot might help…

This is what I installed:

got from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/download/?product=thunderbird-31.3.0&os=win&lang=en-US

Thunderbird Setup 31.3.0.exe 25,862 1218 2014 18:04 PM [utc]

I tried adding a screen shot -- uploaded image was shown, a jpeg from my computer and it said no file selected. How do I do that?

bluepilgrim said

This is what I installed: got from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/download/?product=thunderbird-31.3.0&os=win&lang=en-US Thunderbird Setup 31.3.0.exe 25,862 1218 2014 18:04 PM [utc] I tried adding a screen shot -- uploaded image was shown, a jpeg from my computer and it said no file selected. How do I do that?

OK -- never mind -- when I replied it added it.

What about the button at bottom left labelled "Skip this and use my existing email"?

(I do hate the prevalent practice of saying "email" when "email address" is meant.)

PS Windows XP???

Or you could use the other button then as described previously, use File|New|Existing Mail Account to access the account addition wizard.

Maybe you cn see this one -- better resolution? I don't do this sort of thing much.

Yes, XP pro-- service pack 3, netframe 4

Anything I pressed failed on my not being online, and there was nothing useful when the popup went away: ACCOUNTS create new account: email chat newsgroups feeds

I saw nothing about file, new, or existing account -- there's nothing there but that sign-up popup, from the 'account wizard', apparently.

That's OK, the first screenshot was fine.

A problem with being a long-time user is that you rarely re-install it from scratch, so you don't often see what a new first time user sees. So yes, I'd forgotten all about this somewhat tacky in-your-face push of a paid-for 3rd party account, and the attempted connection to a sign-up server.

A few users had genuinely asked for Thunderbird to be able to offer an email account, I guess from having used hotmail/googlemail/yahoo etc where you get a complete solution in one sign-up. Those users might find the concept of a bare standalone client without any direct affiliation to any email service provider a bit of a surprise.

But seriously, don't the two buttons at the bottom work?

Thunderbird has lamentably adopted a menu-free design. You're supposed to recognize the button with three lines as a menu (copied from Google, and Chrome.) But here in Linux, I can't reliably predict what you'll see in Windows, whereas variations in the traditional menus are well documented.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Menu_differences_in_Windows,_Linux,_and_Mac

For online help to be of any value, I'd urge you to reinstate the traditional menu and the toolbars.

Hold down alt, press V and select Toolbars, and tick the checkboxes. Now you'll see a real menu with a "File" option.

The two button give me create new account' screen wanting sign-up info.

Using existing account gives me 'mail account setup'

configure later gives me

ACCOUNTS create new account

It's like the old DOS game of Asylum: you are in a room, and nothing you do makes any difference --- all roads lead to create an account, or exit the program, except clicking address book, which doesn't help.

"Hold down alt, press V and select Toolbars, "

Maybe tomorrow -- I'm worn out with this today, and I have a bunch of other things to do, including backing up the changes I made in the windows partition before trying to install Debian again with Grub2 -- which broke XP (with it's dumb insistence on MBR) so I get only a third of the screen.

I'm beginning to think I should have just sprung for Win 7 so I could keep doing my regular work without learning a 'few semesters' worth of new systems and interfaces. Maybe drag out an old machine so I can run Turbo C and program again. I'm too old for this stuff. Users, and even programmers, need stability. Lord knows how a new user could cope with that three-fingered-salute in the corner.

Thanks.

Actually, I tried the alv-v and nebum nail, and status bar are all checked -- but no change. Same mostly blank screen. It doesn't work here.

I couldn't use Debian; it didn't like my hardware. I use Linux Mint Debian Edition.

I doubt your turbo c programs would run on a modern PC. :-(

I can't remember for sure, but I suspect the current build of Thunderbird won't run on XP.

This item is about Firefox:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-no-longer-works-some-versions-windows-xp

but since Thunderbird and Firefox share a significant amount of code, specifically the gecko component, that caveat probably applies to Thunderbird too.

You have to have an older PC to run Turboc unless you use one of the kluges, which don't work well.

For some programs it worth writing on old machines and then porting the source -- Turbo C was that good.

So far Firefox runs on my XP with SP3.

I can run Mint and Debian both on the Lenovo TS 140, but I decided I don't like Mint or Ubuntu with the SUDO nonsense and not being able to operate as root, especially when setting up and backing up. And the package manager scatters pieces all over the place, unstructured, with cryptic names so I couldn't find the programs I installed.

I'm weary of having my OS and software fight with me all the time. Right now all I have up for Linux is Knoppix, on flash drive, which is pretty fair, and useful for many things. I really do want to avoid having to hack or rewrite kernels -- or apps -- got bitten with Dolphin (used in Kapersky rescue disk) already with it's bug of losing files when copying a large number of them. Now I just load up slitaz for that sort of thing.

Maybe I'll settle on open Suse? If I can get it to boot...

'If it works, don't fix it'. I'll see if I can dig out an old version of T-Bird if I need it for conversion of Eudora's files. I may yet have to end up writing a filter to do it... (groan...)

Thanks again.

I think the XP compatibility thing is a red herring; I was using XP SP3 myself up to about a year ago. (I still hate Windows 7.)

For reference, past versions of Thunderbird can be found here:

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/

(and Firefox too, a little way back up the tree.)

Thanks. I didn't get tool bars, but using the 3-fingered dingy in the corner, I was able to get to the import menu, and it seems to have started -- a few GB to go. Maybe it will work. If I can get that done I can save the stuff and possibly use them when I get a Linux installed, maybe with T-Bird if it runs there.

I don't like windows at all, and Microsoft even less, but it's a chore to extract oneself and switch over when you use are using the computer all the time and need to migrate things -- not to mention the learning curves to become proficient (lack of menus and bars don't help that at all!).

I'm waiting for Russia, China, India, and maybe the other BRICS countries to write a new OS from the ground up, using modern and anticipated hardware and computer science, not based solely on profits and competition -- it's seems a bit much for the (anarchic) free software people to do, given the disorganized nature of many of them, with a zillion forks.

There are a lot of users who would make the jump if the transition were easier. I have one cyber friend who would like to Linux but he isn't sure about giving up Eudora and some of its features, and, of course, there is having to learn a new interface. Almost I guess what is needed is a T-Bird 'engine' with different gui shells emulating the other big readers. It's the transition, migration, and the 'what I have is doing it good enough' that seems to hold most people to microsoft. Old comfortable shoes...

I use Thunderbird and Firefox because they both run just fine in both Windows and Linux, and given that I use Linux by choice at home and Windows by necessity at work, I avoid having to switch mental gears for my email and browsing.