How do you choose Google rather than Bing as search engine for highlighted text right-click menu?
Today, having downloaded Thunderbird version 60, I find that I can highlight text in an email in Thunderbird, and right-click to display a menu that includes the option to "Search Bing using \"<the text I highlighted >\"". Yesterday, on the previously installed version, I could do this, except that (as I prefer) the menu option was "Search Google using \"<the text I highlighted >\"", rather than Bing (which I make a point of never using). I would rather revert to my old version of Thunderbird, than be steered into using Bing like this, a search engine I avoid.
I cannot find out how to change the menu, to use Google rather than Bing as my search engine. Could somebody please tell me how to do this? Alternatively, how can I revert to the version of Thunderbird that didn't advertise to Bing, and have it hard-coded as the default search engine, as version 60 appears to?
Opaite Mbohovái (8)
There is a way to add Google, DuckDuckGo et al to TB 52, but the method doesn't work in TB 60. Work is underway to make it relatively simple to do in 60, but if you get it working in 52, the search engines will remain after an upgrade to 60.
I don't even know how to find out whether the TB version overwritten with version 60 the last upgrade (with hindsight, ill-advised) was 52 or not, nor how to revert to the last correctly-working TB version I had, whatever that might have been (52 or otherwise), in order to embark (or not, as the case may be) upon implementing your proposed solution (which relies on my having overwritten 52 with 60, and knowing how to undo this.
Regretfully, I cannot therefore mark your response as a solution to my problem.
Unprecedentedly, Thunderbird automatically sent me an email when I upgraded, which the new 60 version opened in a tab additional to my Inbox tab. I suspect that that email, which will take me ages to read, was a warning that certain things that used to work, might no longer work, now that I'd unwisely consented to upgrade. If so, it strikes me that the warning ought to have come before the upgrade, not after it. I'd have eschewed the "Trojan Horse" upgrade rather than be lumbered (as I now seem to be) with Bing, rather than sticking with Google as my search engine.
The update history is in Tools/Options/Advanced/Update. On that tab, you'll also see what is your update choice: auto, check or never.
The link to all releases of TB was given in my first reply. Installing a different version over the existing one shouldn't affect your data (mail, contacts etc.), but it's recommended to first backup your profile - which you should be doing regularly anyways.
sfhowes said
There is a way to add Google, DuckDuckGo et al to TB 52, but the method doesn't work in TB 60. Work is underway to make it relatively simple to do in 60, but if you get it working in 52, the search engines will remain after an upgrade to 60. TB 52 installers
Thank you for replying.
I've lost interest. It's just annoying that I wasn't warned before I made the upgrade, that it would smuggle in an advert for Bing.
sfhowes said
The update history is in Tools/Options/Advanced/Update. On that tab, you'll also see what is your update choice: auto, check or never. The link to all releases of TB was given in my first reply. Installing a different version over the existing one shouldn't affect your data (mail, contacts etc.), but it's recommended to first backup your profile - which you should be doing regularly anyways.
Thanks for replying. I've decided to put up with the problem. But what am I supposed to be backing up? I am using Thunderbird as a "thin" email client, of multiple "fat" email servers, IMAP and POP. What is my Thunderbird "profile" that I ought to be backing up?
A better backup procedure (because it's easier to restore) is to copy the Thunderbird folder, steps 1-6 of these instructions.
Thank you for the effort. I have abstained from answering the question, "WAS THIS HELPFUL TO YOU?", because your kind response would have been helpful, if I'd seen the point of backing up my Thunderbird profile. It's not your fault I don't see the need for this.
I've had the same, paid-for Hotmail email address for more than 20 years now. I've accessed it via a web browser on a Microsoft page all this time, occasionally. On a daily basis, I've also used various clients, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live and (most recently) Thunderbird (which I started using because Windows Live stopped working with Hotmail).
If I lost my paid-for Hotmail account, and Microsoft hadn't backed it up as they are supposed to, this would be a problem. If I lost my Thunderbird profile, I'd uninstall and reinstall Thunderbird, or try a different free email client, which I'd point to my web-based Hotmail account using the IMAP protocol, and my other seldom-used email addresses using POP3, just as I do every time my favoured email client stops working with Hotmail.
What I really want, is a quick fix for the problem I mentioned, whereby Thunderbird is cosying up to Bing.
Moambuepyre JohnAllman rupive
While it's true you can recover your mail from an IMAP account by setting up in TB or any other program, backing up the profile saves the address books, add-ons, local calendars, local mail and all settings in one place.
You may be interested to know that Windows Live Mail works with Hotmail accounts in Windows 10, as long as they're set up with IMAP or POP, and SMTP, but not as before with ActiveSync.