The update is already available for download. Users who already work with a version of Thunderbird can check for new updates by clicking on Help > Check for Updates in the email client’s interface. The new version is also available for download at the official Mozilla Messaging site, good for users who cannot update the client directly.

How is Thunderbird affected by the vulnerability anyway? If you remember, the email client has browser-like capabilities, and that’s where it becomes vulnerable. The user needs to open a website in Thunderbird that exploits the vulnerability. If the email client has not been upgraded the system could be compromised, and an attacker could get remote access to the local system.

Thunderbird users who do not use the browser-like features are safe, but should update anyway to eliminate the possibility of a successful attack.

An update for the desktop email client Thunderbird was just released, raising the version of the email software to 3.1.4.

The version is considered a stability update, and therefor a recommended update for all Thunderbird users of the 3.x branch.

Thunderbird users who already run a version of Thunderbird 3.1 should get update notifications in the next hours. Those who do not want to wait can either check for updates manually by clicking on Help > Check for Updates, or visiting the official Mozilla Messaging site which offers downloads for all supported operating systems and languages.

thunderbird update 3.1.4

The release notes mention several stability updates and fixes to the user interface. A closer look at the bugs listed at the bug tracking service Bugzilla shows four fixes, including a fix for the bug that was earlier this day fixed in the Firefox web browser.

Several crash related bugs where fixed, especially one when new mail arrived and the user clicked either on the system tray icon, or the new mail notification information.

In other news, the Thunderbird 3.0x branch has also been updated to version 3.0.8.

Extension developers have also added several interesting add-ons for the email client including the previously reviewed Sender Verification extension.

Quick Filter is another extension for Thunderbird 3 that adds email filtering capabilities to the web browser. The extension adds a small toolbar on top of the email column in the software program that can be used to filter the emails of the active folder in Thunderbird.

Five permanent filter options are displayed in the toolbar plus a text form to filter the emails by name.

The permanent filter options are there to display only unread or starred emails, emails send by contacts, emails by tag or emails with attachments. These email filters can be combined with the text filter to quickly find specific emails in the active folder.

The extension searches in the sender, recipients and subject header by default with the option to add the body text to search the email body as well. These filters can be configured as needed, it is for instance possible to only search in email bodies or by sender.

Another interesting option provided by the email filtering extension is the ability to make the filter settings permanent so that they are applied to other folders the user switches to. This can be enabled or disabled in the toolbar as well.

Quick Filter is a very handy extension for the Thunderbird email client that is most useful to filter emails in large mail folders.

The extension has now been integrated into Thunderbird 3 and therefor removed from the add-on repository.

Bugzilla reports a total of 82 bugs that have been fixed in Thunderbird 3.0.4, among them 19 critical and 6 major bugs. Most of the critical bugs fix crash related issues in the email client, good news for users who have been experiencing crashes on a regular basis.

Thunderbird 3.0.4 fixes the following issue in Thunderbird 3.0.3:

* Several fixes to improve stability and security, see the Security Advisory.
* Several fixes to the user interface.

Thunderbird 3.0.4 is already offered for download at the Mozilla Messaging website. Users can either download the latest version of the email software from that website or update the version from within the email client if it is installed on their computer system.

Thunderbird 3.1 Beta is a preview release that fixes a total of 96 different bugs including crash, performance and security fixes.

One of the problems that we have experiencing lately for instance was the inability to save messages after they have been sent. This issue has been fixed in the new beta release of the email client.

The release notes point out that the following notable changes have been made to Thunderbird 3.1 Beta:

Several fixes to improve upgrading from Thunderbird 2.
Several fixes for auto complete, tabs, and activity manager.
Several design improvements and corrections to the interface.
Stability and memory improvements.

The full list of bug fixes and changes is available at Bugzilla which lists a total of 119 bugs of which 10 have been classified as critical and five as major. The majority of critical bugs are related to application crashes with the exception of the DNS prefetch security issue, a startup issue and one upgrade issue.

Thunderbird 3.1 Beta is available for all supported languages and operating systems. It is still a development release and should not be run in a work environment unless a proper disaster recovery option is available.

In the case of Thunderbird 3.0.3 it is a single bug fix that fixes missing folders and an empty folder pane for some users who have updated to Thunderbird 3.0.2.

Mozilla Messaging recommends the new release to all Thunderbird 3 users even if they have not been affected by the bug.

The new release is already available at the official Mozilla Messaging website. It is provided for all supported operating systems and languages.

The automatic update check of the email client usually picks up new releases quickly as well, expect a notification today in the email client.

Thunderbird 3 users who still want to try out the new release can get it currently only from the Mozilla ftp server to which we no longer link directly out of courtesy for the developers.

A total of 56 bugs have been fixed in the new Thunderbird release including several that caused crashes. At least one security issue was also fixed in the new version of the email client, namely a DNS prefetch security issue. This version also fixes an update for Outlook Express users who want to migrate to Thunderbird 3 as previous versions had troubles importing messages with many recipients or large msg header.

The full list of bug fixes and changes is accessible at the Rumbling Edge. If you want to download and update Thunderbird right now make sure to backup the email client first. (via Caschy)

Update:

The official Mozilla Messaging website has announced the release of Thunderbird 3.0.2. It can be downloaded from there directly for all supported operating systems.

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.01 is a security and stability release that fixes several issues in the email client. The list of changes lists 124 bugs that have been fixed in the new release including 25 bugs that have received a critical rating and 17 that received a major rating by the developers.

Most of the critical issues that have been fixed are related to crashes but there also have been some security fixes. Users who are planning to install Thunderbird 3.01 should take a look at the known issues before they do so to make sure that they do not run into problems using the email software.

Thunderbird 3.01 is available at the Mozilla ftp server but also at popular download portals such as Softpedia.

• Seamless integration into the new Thunderbird 3.0 user interface
• The different modes (calendar view, task view) are now diplayed in tabs
• Lightning now supports SeaMonkey 2.0 as a host application
• You can now define multiple alarms for a single event
• CalDAV support and interoperability with various CalDAV servers have been improved
• The application stability, performance and memory consumption have been improved
• A full list of changes that have gone into this release can be found on The Rumbling Edge website (LINK MISSING)

It should also be noted that Lightning 1.0 beta 1 does not support Mozilla Thunderbird 2.x anymore. Users who have not switched to the new version of the email client will have to keep using Lightning 0.9x instead. It is also a good idea to check the known issues before starting the installation to avoid incompatibilities and other problems.

Mozilla Lightning 1.0 beta 1 can be downloaded from the project’s homepage at the Mozilla website.

The developer’s have not published a changelog detailing the changes between the second release candidate and the final release. The short time between both releases suggests that not much has been changed since then.

Thunderbird users who are still running Thunderbird 2 and other interested users might want to read up on the new key features of the email client:

• Tabbed Email: Provides the ability view individual emails and folders in tabs, and web pages via add-ons in tabs so users can quickly jump between them, just as one manages web pages in Mozilla’s Firefox. Folder tabs are remembered, so Thunderbird starts up pre-configured and personalized to each user.
• Filtered Search: Designed with search in mind, the new search interface in Thunderbird 3 contains filtering and timeline tools to help users quickly and accurately pin-point the exact email by word matches, correspondents or even attachment types at the moment they need it, all based on analysis of the user’s own emails.
• Message Archive: Archiving mail moves email from the inbox into the new archive folder system, de-cluttering the inbox while at the same time enabling users to find email months or years from now.
• One-click Address Book: A very quick and easy way to add people to an address book, by simply clicking on the star icon in the messages received from new correspondents.
• New Mail Account Setup Wizard: Getting started with Thunderbird 3 is faster than ever with the new account set-up wizard that requires simple information, like email addresses and passwords to get going instead of a user’s IMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS settings.
• Smart Folders: Combines individual mailboxes to help manage multiple email accounts in one spot. For example, by selecting the Inbox, users can view all the incoming emails from all their different accounts without having to go to each email account separately.
• Add-ons Manager: The new add-ons manager can help users find, download, and install hundreds of add-ons enabling them to customize Thunderbird 3 and add functionality or change the appearance.
• Better Integration with Gmail: Now integrates with international versions of Gmail and Gmail’s special folders such as sent and trash.
• Better Integration with Windows and Mac OS X: Updated look and feel, improved import tools, search integration, and address book support for Windows 7, Vista and Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
• Gecko 1.9.1 Engine: The same Web page rendering engine and graphics infrastructure used in Firefox, provides the latest Web Standards support and security enhancements.
• Automated Updates: Thunderbird’s update system notifies users when a security update is available and automates the download and installation process to keep users safe.

The release notes do contain known issues on the other hand which should be read before updating or installing the new version of Thunderbird.

It mentions a shutdown hang with high cpu usage and no open imap connections, something that we have been experiencing not regularly but frequently after updating to Thunderbird 3 RC1. The other three fixes have received one major and two normal ratings but they did not affect the email client’s stability or security.

Thunderbird 3 will automatically pick up the new version and suggest a download of it to the user. It is furthermore possible to download the new version of Thunderbird from the developer’s website where it is offered for all supported operating systems and languages. The same page is a good read for users who have not made the switch to Thunderbird 3 yet as it contains a list of the new features of the email program.

The best case for setting up an email account in Thunderbird 3 is that the user only needs to fill out three different parameters of which none are related to mail server host names or ports.

As you can see it is only necessary to fill out a name, email address and password in the beginning.

Thunderbird will now automatically try and discover the incoming and outgoing mail server including ports and security settings. These information are displayed on the same screen and a green light indicates that the discovery was successful.

It is now up to the user to either accept the discovered settings, edit them right away or opt for a manual setup which will lead to the same email setup options that Thunderbird 2 offered its users.

Edit makes it possible to edit parameters like the username, incoming server, incoming mail protocol, port and security settings on the same screen. These can be directly verified by Mozilla Thunderbird 3.

The mail server discovery works very well for popular email providers such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail. It can happen that Thunderbird is not able to discover those settings which often happens if the user hosts mail accounts by lesser known providers or on a virtual or dedicated server.

The only option that is then available is to opt for the manual setup to configure the email account so that it can be used in the email client.

Thunderbird 3 makes it very easy to setup email accounts especially if they are hosted by a popular email provider. These email users do not have to hunt down the mail server settings on the email providers website anymore since they are automatically discovered by Thunderbird.

Other new features include a tabbed interface to open multiple messages and mailboxes at once (Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background), a smart folder mode which combines mailboxes from several email accounts into one mailbox (think of one inbox that contains mails from multiple accounts), improved add-ons manager, address book and Gmail integration among other new features.

Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate 1 is available for download in all supported languages and for all operating systems at Mozilla Messaging. Users should check out the known issues in the release notes before they upgrade their version of the email client. The developers do mention that this release is not intended to be used in a productive environment. Make sure to backup all settings before performing the upgrade. (via Mozilla Messaging)

The following five add-ons have recently been added to the Mozilla Thunderbird extensions repository at the Mozilla website. Some of them are not yet compatible with the latest beta of Thunderbird 3. The email user needs to force compatibility in this case with the Nightly Tester Tools add-on (or edit the compatibility setting in the xpi file manually).

Extra Folder Columns

Thunderbird 2 users were able to display extra columns in the mail folder sidebar. These columns could display the size of each folder on the local hard drive, the total number of emails contained within and the amount of emails that have not been read yet. Not so with Thunderbird 3 which does not provide these additional columns for the folders at all.

Extra Folder Columns has been designed for Thunderbird 3 to add those three columns again to the web browser. All three data columns will be displayed by default but the user has the option to remove them individually so that only the columns are displayed that are of interest to the Thunderbird user.

download Extra Folder Columns

Show In/Out

Show In/Out has been designed for Thunderbird users who like to move email conversations, that is all incoming and outgoing emails, to one folder to have access to all emails of a conversation directly. Thunderbird by default does not show if an email was an incoming or outgoing email. That’s where Show In/Out steps in. It adds two new columns to the main window of Thunderbird. The first displays an icon showcasing if the email was incoming or outgoing, the second displays the name of the sender or recipient depending if the email was incoming or outgoing.

The developer has designed the add-on to replace the sender and recipient columns in the Thunderbird main window helping users who like to move all incoming and outgoing emails into the same folder.

download Show In/Out

ThunderBirthDay

ThunderBirthday will display the birthdays of email contacts in the Lightning calendar add-on. The extension has two dependencies that need to be installed before it can be installed. It first needs the Lighting calendar add-on for Thunderbird and second the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on which adds the fields “birthday”, “birthmonth” and “birthyear” to the email address book.

Create a new calendar in Lightning by clicking File>New>Calendar… in the menu bar. Then choose “On My Computer” as location and “Birthdays from the Thunderbird addressbook” as type for your calendar. Also specify the address book to use as a source for birthdays. Finally choose a name for the new calendar.

Now open the “Edit Card” dialog of an address book card and set the birthday in the “Other data” tab. Note that these changes don’t take effect in the calendar until it gets reloaded. To do this either restart Thunderbird or right click on a calendar from the list, then choose “Reload Remote Calendars”.

Also note that the events generated by ThunderBirthDay cannot be modified with Lightning for the moment. Maybe future versions of the extension will be bidirectional.

download ThunderBirthDay

Forward

Thunderbird by default forwards email messages as attachments. This can be changed in Tools → Options → Composition → General so that the email messages are forwarded as inline messages instead. There is also an option in the Message menu to select either attachment or inline as the method of forwarding the selected emails in Thunderbird. This add-on simply moves this option to more prominent locations: The Forward button and Message context menus.

download Forward

Border Colors

If you have multiple email accounts configured in Thunderbird you might know that there is a chance that you send an email to a recipient from a wrong account. Border Colors is a very simple add-on for Thunderbird that color codes each account that has been configured in the email client. The colors have to be selected after the installation of the add-on as black is being used as the default color for all email accounts.

After configuration a border in the color that has been chosen during configuration will be shown when writing emails. A switch between accounts in the compose email window will also change the border color accordingly.

download Bordercolors

I hope you enjoyed this article. Please write a comment if you would like to have your say on a specific add-on mentioned in this article or would like to add one of your favorite Thunderbird add-ons so that other users can benefit from it as well.

The situation will likely change with the final release of the email client. It is on the other hand likely that most Thunderbird add-ons will function correctly if their compatibility is edited manually or by using an add-on like the Nightly Tester Tools.

Buttons [link]

The Buttons add-on adds several new buttons to Thunderbird 3 including buttons to display the next or previous email (as opposed to displaying the next or previous unread email which is the default option in Thunderbird), SMTP server selection, delete junk button that marks the message as junk and deletes it afterwards, HTML and Image on and off buttons or a delete thread button that deletes the entire thread of messages.

Hide Menubar [link]

The Thunderbird 3 menu does not usually need to be displayed all of the time. Especially users with lower screen resolutions might be interested to save screen estate to work more comfortable in the email client. Hide Menubar is a straightforward Thunderbird 3 add-on that hides the Thunderbird 3 menubar automatically. The alt key can be used to switch between hiding and displaying the menubar.

gContactSync [link]

This add-on makes it possible to synchronize contacts between the Thunderbird email client and one or multiple Gmail and Google accounts.

Smooth Wheel [link]

Smooth Wheel offers the ability to fine tune the mouse scrolling smoothness in Thunderbird. The default smoothness does not satisfy many Thunderbird users (and actually Firefox users as well) and this is the add-on to customize the smoothness for a better experience.

Remove Duplicate Messages [link]

Duplicate emails are usually experienced during connection errors or if the mail program or mailboxes got damaged. This add-on cleans duplicate emails easily offering to move or delete them in the email program.

FiltaQuilla [link]

FiltaQuilla adds new filters to Thunderbird extending the automatic email processing options in the email client. It is for example possible to launch or run a file, append to subject, train the email program as good or junk and mark the email as unread or replied.

Foxclocks [link]

Can display multiple clocks in the Thunderbird interface.

Know of any other Thunderbird 3 add-ons that should be in this list? Let us know in the comments.

The release notes contain a huge list of new features and improvements including a new email search with advanced filtering options, global search with autocomplete, smart folders, tabbed email messages, new add-ons manager, improved address book, better Gmail integration and integration into Windows Vista’s search results.

Improvements have been made to overall performance and stability as well as web compatibility and sustainability. The way IMAP connections are handled has been improved in this version of Thunderbird as well. Thunderbird can now download IMAP messages by default in the background “to allow for faster message loading and better offline operation”.

Users who are interested in the new version can download it from the Mozilla Thunderbird website. The usual precautions should be taken considering that this version is still a beta version that should not be used in a production environment. The full release notes can be accessed at this link.

Another interesting new feature is the quick message preview if multiple email messages have been selected. It basically displays about three lines and the subject of each email in the email window which is a very comfortable way of quickly glancing over multiple emails.

The smart folder mode is another new feature which basically combines folders from multiple email accounts. Instead of having to access multiple email inbox folders or sent folders they can now be accessed combined in the smart folder mode. Other notable changes are better Gmail integration for special folders and foreign languages, the ability to notice properly configured mailing lists and offering ways to respond to these emails and column headings which are can now be configured on a per-folder basis.

The changelog lists 592 new features, changes or bug fixes that the developers had made or added to the new release of Thunderbird.

Interested users should keep in mind that the email client is still a beta version. Caution and regular backups are advised. Users who need email for work should make sure that they have a backup in place in case somethings goes wrong.

Messages can be archived pressing the A key highlighted or by using the archive button that appears in the header area of each message. They will be automatically sorted into the correct year and month folder in the mail structure. That’s very handy for users who receive lots of messages per day that they have to keep.

Another change is a central activity manager that lists the most recent changes in the email client, e.g. retrieving or moving mail. That’s not a lot of new features but Thunderbird was already a very solid mail client. Especially the archiving feature can save lots of time for some users. Thunderbird 3 beta 2 is available for all supported operating systems and languages.

The experimental Mozilla Thunderbird 3 add-on FiltaQuilla adds those additional actions to the Thunderbird Filter settings, in particular filters to launch a software program, append text to subjects, remove tags or stars, mark the email as replied or unread, copy the mail as read or disable notifications.

Probably the most interesting filter of this list is the filter to launch a file after receiving an email message that meets the requirements.

Each Thunderbird filter can be activated and deactivated in the options of the Thunderbird add-on. The mail filters can be selected in the Tools > Message Filters menu.

The Thunderbird add-on is unfortunately only compatible with Thunderbird 3 and not with the more widely used Thunderbird 2. Thunderbird 3 is currently available in Beta 1.

The beta release of the email client contains some of those new features already. Some of them are the long awaited improvements to IMAP for faster message viewing, improved email import from other email clients or the tab interface for emails.

The beta will install into a different directory in Windows and MAC OS X while the developers say that it may overwrite settings in Linux. They still recommend to backup the profile before installation to be on the safe side.

The release notes list several issues that are known in this release that might affect your system. You should check them out before installation to avoid complications.