Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition 3 Beta 4 Released

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on October 12, 2009 - 8:38pm

Thunderbird logoMozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition 3 Beta 4 has been released in Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Portugual and Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish and Spanish (International). It's the latest test release of the upcoming Mozilla Thunderbird 3 email client bundled with a PortableApps.com launcher as a portable app, so you can take your email with you. It's also a great way to test out all the new features of version 3 without affecting your existing Thunderbird installation. This release updates to Mozilla Thunderbird to 3 Beta 4. It's packaged in PortableApps.com Format so it can easily integrate with the PortableApps.com Suite. And it's open source and completely free.

Read on for more details...

What's New in Thunderbird 3 Beta 4

Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1.3 platform including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, web compatibility, and code simplification and sustainability.

There are over 200 changes in this release, many laying the groundwork for future changes. Some notable changes include:

New features in version 3 include: Tabbed Email Messages, New Message Summary View, Column Headings per folder, Smart Folders for multiple accounts, Improved Gmail Integration, new Mail Account Setup Wizard and lots more.

New In This Release

The included Thunderbird has been updated to 3 Beta 4 (release notes). Dutch, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish and Spanish (International) languages have been added. The installer has also been updated. As with other tests, it will install alongside your current Thunderbird Portable installation in a ThunderbirdPortableTest directory by default. You can distinguish it in the PortableApps.com Menu by hovering over it to see the version number. You can right-click on it to rename it to 'Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition Beta' or another name if you prefer.

PortableApps.com Installer / PortableApps.com Format

Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition is packaged in a PortableApps.com Installer so it will automatically detect an existing PortableApps.com installation when your drive is plugged in. It supports upgrades by installing right over an existing copy, preserving all your email and settings. And it's in PortableApps.com Format, so it automatically works with the PortableApps.com Suite including the Menu and Backup Utility.

Download

Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition is available for immediate download from the Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition 3 Beta 4 homepage. You can get the Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish and Spanish (International) releases from the Localization page. Get it today!

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Comments

Gizmokid2005's picture

This is a beta release, and it's not recommended. What you can do is copy your whole Data folder from your current ThunderbirdPortable folder into the new ThunderbirdPortableTest.

So you'd copy X:\PortableApps\ThunderbirdPortable\Data to X:\PortableApps\ThunderbirdPortableTest\Data (where Secret is your current drive letter). And overwrite the Data folder if prompted.

Any reason it's asking to make itself the default mail client on first startup? Beta 3 had this problem as well. What's really odd is that the "Ask on startup" checkbox is unchecked when the prompt comes up and the same checkbox is also unchecked in the preferences. I'm assuming this is a bug in the TB beta itself?

John T. Haller's picture

Please post a note in the forums with this issue including the version, install location and language. I can't reproduce this myself.

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