That Junk Mail Icon

Hi All,

My system is has Mozilla Firefox 1.0.4 and Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2. In my mail program I have a Junk icon that is 'nailed' to the toolbar. I would prefer to see this as Not Junk and make changes to Junk mail manually. Nothing I try will change it. Using one of Ramona's suggestion of right clicking the mail and selecting Mark as Junk or Not Junk has no effect. The drop down menu at Message containing Mark produces no change. The toobar icon stays a Junk.

Also, setting the Junk Status on the drop down menu from the rightmost icon (next to Date) has no effect that I can see. What must I do to get the Junk Mail icon to Not Junk? Thank you.

 

Hi derfsch,

I think you may be misunderstanding the logic behind the button. It's not telling you that your message is "Junk" but, rather, allowing you to designate it as "Junk" if you choose. If you open a message already designated as "Junk ", you'll notice that the button has changed to "Not Junk ".

If it really offends you, you can remove the button from your toolbar completely ... right-click in the toolbar, select "Customize... ", and drag the button off the toolbar into the "Customize Toolbar" window. You can do this in both the TB main window and in a message window.

 

derfsch,

I'm thinking that you may not have all the Junk Mail Controls configured. Go to Tools | Junk Mail Controls, and see if your settings are similar to mine:

Junk Mail Controls

Ramona

 

Jim,

My situation was that I never could see "Not Junk" regardless of what I tried so there was no misunderstanding. Your second paragraph can work because now I can manually move mail to the junk folder. See below.

Ramona,

Believe me I was all over, in and out of the Tools to Junk Mail Controls. Nothing I did would change the Junk icon to Not Junk. So I took the easy(?) way out and reloaded Thunderbird. So now I'm seeing what I expected. I can change the Junk icon to Not Junk and cause the junk icon to appear on the mail line between Sender and Date. This allows for dragging and dropping to the junk folder. This is the condition that I remembered from previous mail programs.

Of course the reloading was not without its problem, but that is another story and you will have to stand by so that I can get out of another fine mess. Thank you both for your interest and help.

 

Hi derfsch,

I use the zipped nightly Aviary builds (now at 1.0.5, despite the fact that the website says 1.0.1) as I firmly believe that they cause fewer problems than the installer builds. If you'd like to try them, I'd suggest that you do the following:

1. download the current zipped build

2. uninstall Tbird

3. delete the Tbird program folder (not your profile folder)

4. use a program such as RegSeeker to clean your registry of all references to Thunderbird

5. unzip the downloaded Tbird build to a location of your choice, and make sure your shortcuts reflect that location (or run the profile manager, deleting your old profile, but not the files)

6. run the program​

The procedure is exactly the same for using a zipped Firefox build.

 

Jim,

The zipped Aviary builds are new grounds for me as I use what you call the "installer builds." What I see there are four folders and I'm not sure which to use. If you would provide some more guidance, I would like to try to install the TB 1.0.5. I can unzip the download and your latest set of instructions is clear.

I have been using RegSeeker (with caution) for some time now, probably picked it up from one of your earlier posts. If you could reply again, I would appreciate your further help.

 

"This allows for dragging and dropping to the junk folder. This is the condition that I remembered from previous mail programs. "

You do not need to drag and drop into the Junk folder, if you set up Tools|Junk Mail controls. Most of my mail goes directly to the trash folder, and gets marked Junk, if some filter conditions are met. Otherwise I click in the spot which you mentioned, and my mail goes to trash also, and is marked. If anything is marked, and it should not be, I uncheck, or click not junk, if opened, and, in this case, I select to right click|Move to the folder of choice. I am a terrible shot with the drag and drop, and it is less effort to do it this way.

 

Hi derfsch,

This will be a (perhaps unnecessarily) long post, but I want to be sure that I cover everything you'll need to know.

Each day the nightly builds are published on Mozilla.org's nightly builds page. The ones you and I are interested in are found at the -aviary1.0.1/ links (even though they actually display as 1.0.5), but note that those links contain builds not only for Windows, but also for Linux and the Mac ... you just have to find the right one.

There may be more than one build published on any given day ... today (7-12-05), for instance, there are two Windows and two Mac builds with today's date on the page. I strongly suggest that you not use the builds found at the -trunk/ and -aviary1.0/ links.

In any event, when you find the right link, you want the file that's labeled thunderbird-win32.zip. (ThunderbirdSetup.exe is the installer file.)

The beauty of the zipped builds is that they don't need to be installed. You can locate them anywhere you like (as can the installer builds, but it's a bit more difficult), and you have more control over them, in the sense that you don't ever need to uninstall them or write over them to upgrade ... you simply delete the existing program folder and unzip the new build in the same location (a new Thunderbird folder with all necessary subfolders and program files is created in the process).

It's important to remember that the Thunderbird program folder and the profile folder are separate and distinct. You can delete the program folder and open a new one as often as you choose, but don't ever delete your profile folder (or folders ... you can have multiple profiles).

The only other file necessary (other than any shortcuts) is created in step 5 of my previous post, when the profile manager is run (Start > Run > Path to Thunderbird.exe -p). It is located at C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Thunderbird\profiles.ini and should read something like:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=TBIRD
IsRelative=0
Path=E:\MOZILLA\PROFILES\TBIRD (this is the path to my profile)
Default=1​

The necessary registry entries are created when Thunderbird is opened for the first time and a registry.dat file is created in the C:\...\Thunderbird folder. There is also a pluginreg.dat file at that location.

Your shortcuts should, of course, point to the Thunderbird.exe file in the Thunderbird program folder, which you've just unzipped.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Firefox can be set up in exactly the same way.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

My shorter answer is to: unzip the .zip file. I have a directory just for unzipped files. Go to it, and open the latest folder, i.e. called "thunderbird ". I right click on the thunderbird.exe file, and select to send to Desktop (create shortcut).
I will use that shortcut to start the program. I do not do anything else, other than renaming the unzipped folder (I do that first) to something more descriptive. Same with the shortcut.
There is no problem with one build, but, to avoid confusion, I create new profiles for these builds. And, TB is well behaved. I can use TB1.02 as default, while 1.0+(or future 1.1) is not.

 

Westside,
I agree with what you have posted. My comment about dragging and dropping was just to indicate that that was one of the junk controls that I used previously. See below and thank you for your reply.

Jim,
Well without your handholding I'm sure that I never could have worked through the installation of Thunderbird 1.0.5. from the Aviary builds. But the TB 1.0.5 is installed and the Junk icon which started all this is behaving as I recalled. I thank you for the help and the detailed instructions. I have printed a copy and will probably use them in the future.

 

I satrted this as soon as Westside posted #9, but got interrupted, hence the delay.


Westside ...

Hmmm ... I can see using a single folder for downloading files, but I don't understand keeping all of your unzipped programs/folders/files in a single folder. But, I'm unzipping things all the time, and I usually unzip to wherever I need to (easy with WinZip).

Nor do I understand why you would name the unzipped folder to something other than "Thunderbird" ... that seems pretty descriptive to me.

I don't use a "Send to..." context menu command (because I've never used it in XP, I think I disabled/removed it). It was handy in Win9x, but XP's "Open with..." command serves the same purpose for me.

And, I don't use shortcuts on the Desktop ... as far as I'm concerned, that's what the Start menu is for.

But, that's one of the things that makes Windows interesting ... there are so many different ways of doing the same thing.


derfsch ...

Glad I was able to help, and that you could understand my instructions.


Addendum:

I mentioned multiple profiles in my last post, but didn't elaborate. It's easy to establish more than one profile using a single Thunderbird build, but give each profile a distinctive name.

You can go through Tbird's Profile Manager each time you change profiles, but the easiest way is with a shortcut. Your shortcut's Target: window should show the path to Thunderbird.exe, followed by -p and the name of the profile (case sensitive) you want Tbird to open with.

Exactly the same procedure can be used for multiple profiles with Firefox.

 

I am using Stuffit for Windows, very convenient having several Mac-using friends. Stuffit has a default unzipping location, and that's where all unzipped files go. I download everything to the desktop, and delete the file as soon as unzipped. Since I may have more than one unzipped file at the same time, it helps to give the folder a more descriptive name, like the nightly which I used.
I am still working with a 7-7 build. Two different downloads of 7-8 build failed to stay open after unzipping. First time ever (and time to go back for more recent builds). You can see why renaming is helpful. Otherwise the good build would have been overwritten.
I agree that using the Start menu is cleaner. My Desktop is a riot scene, but I like to see what I have. So, everyone is happy!

 

It's interesting how different users evolve different operating techniques using the same software. I'll comment as I go ...

User selectable location? Or default?

I download all files to a designated Downloads folder, then drag them to wherever I want the included files, and unzip them there. Unlike you, I archive nearly every .zip file I download (for awhile, at least), unless it becomes quite clear that I'm not interested in saving it.

If you saved them in different folders, you wouldn't have to rename them, and they wouldn't get overwritten, either. Unlike you, I normally use only one build at any given time, but may work with a number of different profiles. If I do use more than one build, I go straight to the executable (I always have Windows Explorer open) to open it.

Personally, I find it easier to keep track of things using Explorer and the Start menu.