Will the current version of Thunderbird *run* under Win 7?

Yes.

I'm afraid to upgrade, and break Thunderbird.

It's already broken. Also, there's nothing you can't undo with a backup, and there's nothing stopping you from having a backup.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It is broken, though.

tpell said

Will the current version of Thunderbird *run* under Win 7?

Yes.

I'm afraid to upgrade, and break Thunderbird.

It's already broken. Also, there's nothing you can't undo with a backup, and there's nothing stopping you from having a backup.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It is broken, though.

It a break I can live with. I don't *need* Thunderbird to be 100% That's not my issue.

Please provide *exact* instructions on how to "back up" Thunderbird. I've tangled with it before, trying to save and restore files. It was a *nightmare*. Randomly named inboxes. (65lchbwy.default) I have multiple inboxes because I use 3 incoming emails. (pop3.terraforming.com, mail.terraforming.com, and pop3.terraforming-1.com) There are hidden linkages inside the program that I can't access. I don't see any logic to the naming structure. Any time you deal with files under the hidden AppData folder, particularly "roaming", it gets messy very quickly. I'm still living with a break in the folder structure that I created when trying to back up something.

It's a simple copy and paste of a single folder that contains all of your Thunderbird data. There's only one AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird folder and it's the default location of storage for all Thunderbird profiles. All you have to do is Quit Thunderbird and copy-paste that folder to a convenient location. That's all there is to it as far as backing up goes, unless you try really hard to mess it up.

With that backup copy at hand, you don't have anything to fear about upgrading. On the contrary, you should be afraid of not having a backup of data you regard as important. Some of us have learnt the hard way.

As for upgrading, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1352735

You're talking about backing up the data. That won't help me if the current Thunderbird fails to run properly under Windows 7, or my particular version of Windows 7.

How do I back up the program Thunderbird, so I can put it back if it breaks? The issue becomes changes to configuration settings in my system files. Trust me, I've worked with those before. It can be a *nightmare*, especially if you accidentally change any settings for another application. (And *nobody* is perfect. Even "backing up" files can go wrong, as my boss proved when he managed to delete not only all our company's data files, but also all of the backups. If you think I'm perfect...trust me, I'm old enough to know better.)

And you needn't talk about a system rollback...if it breaks, but the break doesn't become obvious for a few days, a system rollback is right out.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

You're talking about backing up the data. That won't help me if the current Thunderbird fails to run properly under Windows 7, or my particular version of Windows 7.

Read the release notes where the operating system requirements are specified. It is not a support issue if you do not believe that Windows 7 is supported. https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/91.8.1/releasenotes/

Much time is wasted in support forums because folk use internet security suites and optimizer software which is fundamentally incompatible with using a computer for anything but web browsing and Microsoft Office. It is possible your choice of same may have caused issuers in the past as the more out of date the operating system the more aggressive the anti virus/ Internet security stuff becomes..

How do I back up the program Thunderbird, so I can put it back if it breaks? The issue becomes changes to configuration settings in my system files. Trust me, I've worked with those before. It can be a *nightmare*, especially if you accidentally change any settings for another application. (And *nobody* is perfect. Even "backing up" files can go wrong, as my boss proved when he managed to delete not only all our company's data files, but also all of the backups. If you think I'm perfect...trust me, I'm old enough to know better.)

I know this is hard to accept, but Microsoft basically negated the capability to backup an application back about the year 2000, if not in 1995. You can download and install every version of Thunderbird ever released from this site. http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/

Personally I think any attempt to backup installed software has been sort of doomed for the past 20 years, without the help of yet more software to side step the safety controls in Windows.

And you needn't talk about a system rollback...if it breaks, but the break doesn't become obvious for a few days, a system rollback is right out.

I actually consider the roll back type fix a request for more issues, not any sort of permanent fix. It is quite quick and quite prone to failure in my opinion. Reinstall the software works better and without the risk associated with a corrupt registry.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It is broke. Fundamentally you are using a version of the software that has something like a decades worth of known vulnerabilities. It was broke security wise about the time it was released and has only become worse over time. Reliance on "security software" to keep you secure is how some of the worst breaches in history have occurred. Keeping software patch is the only way to mitigate risk. But don't take my word for it, have a look at the details of security patches release and pending https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/ Note that because of the use of the Mozilla platform in Thunderbird's code base, most Firefox issues also affect Thunderbird.

This current issue is about you not having a non broken cypher to use to connect to the mail server, or the web site hosting the remote images.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

I agree with pretty much everything you said. I'm a retired programmer of 40 years. I would have no difficulty believing anything about Microsoft. Gates is the person who convinced the general public that rebooting a computer is a good thing. It's not. We used to run a Univac for an entire year without rebooting it. We brought it down once a year to do preventative maintenance.

I intended to use the Win 10 laptop when this computer died the good death. So far, the Win 7 tower works better and is easier to use than the laptop. I'll continue using it until that situation changes. I have the simplest Symantic product, and Malwarebytes, and that's it, along with the old versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. To be frank...nobody is writing viruses/malware for legacy PCs and software like this any more.

If/when it becomes unusable, I'll switch. It won't be any harder then than it would be trying to run a hybrid system would be now. If there is no easy fix to the error message, I'll just continue to live with it, like I'm doing now. With the Win 10 laptop for a backup unit, I really don't have anything to lose. It's just an irritation...not otherwise dangerous or stopping me from doing anything. (And it's the same unit I played City of Heroes on in 2012, so it's perfect for playing it again, now that the game is back.)

As an old Age of Empires player.... It worked in XP nicely, was difficult in windows 7 because you had to close the explorer process.. but windows 10 brought it back without all the issues. (Windows 109 is far more compatible with old 16 bit software than Windows 7 ever was.

I hated windows 7 when I was first forced to it. Translucent windows and all. I am on windows 10 and dread Windows 11 not because it is no better, but the Microsoft invasion of my personal computing environment is greater yet again. Having said that I still update. Sometimes slowly, but on the whole it is safer for me. The older and less engaged I am with trends and developments in computing the more I rely on the software to help. When I wanted a new system I actually had to ask a friend. I stopped following processors years ago and didn't know good value from bad when a new system came up.

This forum has a number of older big iron players, but little I learned there applies to personal computing in this century. I did my time on MVS Wang mini systems and IBM Mainframes in times past. About all it helps with is Unix/Linux understanding.

All that to say, I understand where you are coming from, and to suggest the shock of updating is better managed in small increments.