Windows Taskbar Unread Badge displays a dynamic icon to indicate the total number of unread mails in Thunderbird

It's been a while since I wrote about Thunderbird extensions. Here's one that I've been using to ensure I don't miss new mails that land in my inbox. The add-on is called Windows Taskbar Unread Badge.
That's quite a mouthful, but it also explains its functionality. The extension places a dynamic badge on Thunderbird's icon on the Taskbar. The badge indicates the number of mails that you've not read yet. That's a neat thing to have, as you can easily tell with a glance that new mails are waiting for you.
Windows 10's Mail app does this too, but it is fairly inconsistent. That is Windows in a nutshell, I suppose. When you open the app and close it without reading the mails, the unread count is no longer displayed, which totally defeats the purpose of having the badge.
Anyway, back to the Mozilla-backed mail client, the program by default places a tray icon, which you can mouse over to view the number of unread mails. That's something which people may forget to use or even fail to notice, which is why Windows Taskbar Unread Badge is a must-have add-on, in my opinion.
Install the extension and it gets to work immediately. You will see the badge count that is the sum of the unread mails from all your accounts. You can customize the extension from its options page.
There are 4 badge styles that you can choose from. The Modern style is the default appearance.
The dot style and envelope styles display a small dot and envelope badge respectively, but these have a con.
They don't display the number of unread mails.
The final option is "Fruity", which looks quite similar to the modern style, but the badge has a border around it like it's a fruit that's been sliced in half.
Personally I think the default one looks the best.
Windows Taskbar Unread Badge counts all unread mails from all folders associated with your account. That's not exactly ideal, because people use the Drafts folders for reminders/templates/note taking too, I know I do. But don't worry, you can make the extension count specific folders like the Inbox, Drafts, Junk, Sent, Trash. Just deselect the ones that aren't important to you.
The only con in the add-on is that Thunderbird has to be running in the background for the icon to actually work.
On a slightly unrelated note, you can send Thunderbird to the system tray by enabling an option. Head to the Options > General > System Integration, and toggle the setting that's labeled "When ThunderBird is minimized, move it to the Tray".
Fun fact: This option was made available in Thunderbird v76, it was added 18 years after users requested the feature.
Forums: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=127700
Bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=208923
If you keep closing the mail client like me, you can install the Minimize on Close extension (not open source), which I mentioned in my ThunderBirdTray review. This works quite nicely with the mail client's minimize setting. Sadly, Windows Taskbar Unread Badge does not display the unread count when Thunderbird is minimized to the tray, not that it's the add-on's fault, but I would have liked the option.
Windows Taskbar Unread Badge is an open source extension.
Note: Windows 10 users will need to enable the "Show badges on taskbar buttons" from the Taskbar Settings.






You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!