Windows 10 reached EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. For more information, see this article.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

I want Thunderbird on my work machine to require a password to open the portal showing my emails. Can this be done?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 20 views
  • Last reply by christ1

Cliveah
Cliveah
more options

I want to check emails whilst I am at work, but I don't have exclusive use of the machine I use, so I don't want Thunderbird to open at all without a password.

As it stands at the moment, the Thunderbird portal and incoming email headers are visible when I hit Thunerbired.exe and the emails can be opened, although the account can't send emails without entering my password (which I haven't saved).

I'm sure there must be a simple solution to this - but I can't find it

I want to check emails whilst I am at work, but I don't have exclusive use of the machine I use, so I don't want Thunderbird to open at all without a password. As it stands at the moment, the Thunderbird portal and incoming email headers are visible when I hit Thunerbired.exe and the emails can be opened, although the account can't send emails without entering my password (which I haven't saved). I'm sure there must be a simple solution to this - but I can't find it

All Replies (2)

Christopher
Christopher
more options

This functionality can be achieved by establishing a master password by following the steps outlined at this article and then installing the StartupMaster add-on.

Note that if you are satisfied with the results of that configuration, you should be able to begin saving your email passwords, as having a master password in addition to those will require you to enter multiple passwords each time you send an email; the master password is designed to protect all other saved passwords.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options
I want to check emails whilst I am at work, but I don't have exclusive use of the machine I use, so I don't want Thunderbird to open at all without a password.

You don't have to have exclusive use of the physical machine, but you should have separate Windows user accounts. And it is very easy to switch between accounts without the need to log off.

The maser password protects your saved account passwords, but not the contents of the profile.

See this article for more information. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Protect_the_profiles_contents