Microsoft retired it on December 31, 2024
Windows Mail App Replacement: Mail App for Windows 10 and 11 With Every Account in One Inbox
Windows Mail had a combined inbox, and the app Microsoft replaced it with is still rolling one out. Inboxes reads Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Zoho, Fastmail and your own domain on one board, in the browser you already have open.
Windows 10 and 11 · Nothing to install · IMAP mailboxes
In short
Microsoft ended support for the Windows Mail, Calendar and People apps on December 31, 2024. They can no longer send or receive mail, they were pulled from the Microsoft Store, and opening one produces a dialog offering to open Outlook instead. The official replacement is new Outlook for Windows, which is free to use with advertising and does not need a Microsoft 365 subscription. Two things about that replacement are worth knowing before you settle for it. First, Microsoft documents that new Outlook syncs non Microsoft accounts, including their mail, contacts and events, to the Microsoft Cloud, and the switch to refuse that exists on macOS but not on Windows. Second, the combined view Windows Mail always had only started reaching Outlook on Windows as the All Accounts view in August 2026, and its first release searches your primary account only. If you kept several mailboxes in Windows Mail because you wanted them in one list, the replacements that do that today are Thunderbird through Unified Folders, eM Client through a single folder tree, or a browser based client such as Inboxes that merges every IMAP account on one board.
Last updated September 2026
The dates, the replacement, and what it costs you
What happened to the Windows Mail app
Most results for this question are download pages for software that no longer exists. Start with what Microsoft actually published, because it decides which replacement is worth your afternoon.
Support ended on December 31, 2024, and the apps stopped working. This was not the usual kind of end of support, where a product keeps running without security patches. Microsoft states that you can no longer send and receive emails or events using Windows Mail and Calendar. The service side was switched off on the date. If your copy stopped syncing at the turn of that year, nothing on your machine is broken and no setting will bring it back.
The apps were removed from the Microsoft Store. There is no supported download, and sideloading the package produces an error when you try to add an account. This is worth stating plainly because a lot of pages still rank for windows mail app download, and a site offering you an installer for a program Microsoft has withdrawn is not doing you a favor.
Opening the old app hands you to Outlook. Microsoft built the migration into the app: launching Mail or Calendar shows a dialog offering Open Outlook, and most machines were switched across automatically. Microsoft also published an export path for local mail, calendar events and contacts into new Outlook, which matters if you had POP accounts. If your accounts were IMAP, your mail was always on the provider and nothing was lost.
New Outlook is free to use, which surprises people. Neither new Outlook for Windows nor Outlook for Mac requires a Microsoft 365 subscription. It carries advertising instead. What a Microsoft 365 subscription buys you is classic Outlook, the older and more capable desktop program, at 9.99 dollars a month or 99.99 a year for Microsoft 365 Personal. Classic Outlook is supported until at least 2029.
New Outlook copies non Microsoft accounts into the Microsoft Cloud. This is the part almost no migration guide mentions. Microsoft publishes a support page titled Sync your account in Outlook to the Microsoft Cloud, and describes syncing non Microsoft accounts, their emails, contacts and events, to the Microsoft Cloud in order to enhance the Microsoft 365 experience. German reporting by Heise found that IMAP and SMTP access data was being copied to Microsoft servers as part of this. The opt out toggle is present in the macOS version and absent on Windows. If you add a Gmail or a company IMAP mailbox to new Outlook, your mail is passing through and resting on a third party you did not choose.
IMAP support in new Outlook is thinner than it was. The ability to add IMAP and POP accounts came back in May 2024, but you cannot edit incoming and outgoing server settings after the account is added, and manual configuration is only offered during setup if auto discovery fails. Microsoft support threads still tell people with awkward IMAP accounts to stay on classic Outlook. Windows Mail let you type in a server, a port and an encryption method without argument.
The combined inbox took nearly two years to come back. Windows Mail had one. Outlook on Windows started rolling out its All Accounts view in August 2026, and Microsoft has said the first release supports searching within your primary account only, with cross account search and shared mailboxes arriving later. So the single feature most people miss from Windows Mail is the one that arrived last, and it is still incomplete.
This is why the third party market for Windows mail clients is busy again. Thunderbird, eM Client and Mailbird all pitch directly at people who lost the Mail app, and eM Client and Mailbird both charge for it, which tells you the demand is real. The choice among them comes down to how many mailboxes you have, whether they are Microsoft accounts, and whether you want the software on one machine or the same board from every machine.
Every replacement that works today
Seven mail apps for Windows 10 and 11, compared
The column that decides this for most people is not the feature list. It is whether the app merges several accounts into one list, and whose servers your other mailboxes end up on.
Swipe to see all columns →
| Mail app | Runs on | Merges accounts into one list | Microsoft 365 mailboxes | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inboxes | Windows 10 and 11, in a browser tab | Yes, one merged board | No, we authenticate with an app password | 29 dollars a month flat, five mailboxes |
| Windows Mail | Retired December 31, 2024 | It did, which is why people miss it | No longer connects to anything | Withdrawn from the Microsoft Store |
| New Outlook for Windows | Windows 10 and 11 | All Accounts view, rolling out since August 2026 | Yes, this is its home ground | No license fee, carries advertising |
| Classic Outlook | Windows, supported until at least 2029 | Yes, through a unified search folder | Yes, including on premises Exchange | Microsoft 365 Personal, 9.99 a month or 99.99 a year |
| Thunderbird | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android | Yes, through Unified Folders | Yes with modern authentication, no Exchange calendar | Open source, no license fee |
| eM Client | Windows and macOS only | Yes, one folder tree | Yes | 59.95 dollars once, one device and version |
| Mailbird | Windows and macOS only | Yes, unified account view | Yes | 2.46 euro per user a month billed yearly |
Vendor prices checked against each publisher directly in August 2026. Mailbird quotes in euro and renders in local currency. eM Client serves a separate US price list that is higher than its euro one, and the figures here are the US ones. Read the eM Client line carefully: the 59.95 dollar purchase covers one device and the version you bought, not future major versions, and the three device figure often quoted belongs to the 39.95 dollar a year Personal subscription. Mailbird also keeps a tier at no cost that holds one account.
Where a browser client fits
What you actually get here
The pitch is narrow on purpose. This is not an Outlook replacement, it is the combined inbox Windows Mail had, with sorting on top.
The combined inbox, back
Every connected account in a single stream sorted by arrival, with the address each message came from shown on the row. This is the Windows Mail feature people actually mourn, and it works the same way here.
Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and your own domain
Anything that speaks IMAP sits in the same list, connected with an app password you generate and can revoke at any time without touching your real account credential.
No install, no Store, no version
It runs in the browser Windows already ships with, so there is nothing to update and nothing that can be withdrawn from a store. The same board opens on a work laptop, a home desktop and a Mac.
A category on every message
Each message arrives already labeled Important, Newsletter, Notification, Spam or Other, so a morning of mixed personal and work mail is sorted before you open it rather than after forty subject lines.
Search that crosses accounts
One query runs against every connected mailbox at once. New Outlook is shipping its All Accounts view with search limited to the primary account first, so this is a live difference rather than a theoretical one.
Flat pricing, not per device
29 dollars a month covers five mailboxes, with larger tiers above it. Per device licenses get expensive at exactly the point where owning several machines and several accounts becomes the problem.
Four steps, and no download
Moving off Windows Mail onto one board
If your accounts were IMAP, and almost all of them were, the mail is still sitting on the provider. You are reconnecting it, not recovering it.
Step 01
List what was in the app
Write down each address Windows Mail held and which provider it belongs to. Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, AOL, Zoho and your own domain all connect here. A Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com address does not.
Step 02
Generate an app password
Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud all require one instead of your normal password. It is a short generated string, it takes about a minute per account, and you can revoke it later without changing anything else.
Step 03
Connect each mailbox
Paste the address and the app password. Server settings for the common providers are filled in already, so you only see a ports and encryption screen if the mailbox is on your own domain.
Step 04
Read one board
Everything lands in one stream with the source account on each row and a category already applied. Pin the tab, or install the page as an app from the Edge or Chrome menu so it gets its own window.
Who this actually helps
The people still searching for a Windows mail app
Nearly two years after the retirement, the search volume has not gone anywhere, because Microsoft answered the question of where mail goes without answering the question of where several mailboxes go.
Anyone who used the combined inbox
Windows Mail merged your accounts and asked nothing for it. If that is the specific thing you lost, new Outlook only started answering it in August 2026 and search across accounts is still coming.
People who do not want mail in the Microsoft Cloud
Adding a Gmail or company IMAP account to new Outlook syncs it to Microsoft servers, and the Windows build has no switch to decline. For some accounts that is merely untidy. For a client mailbox it can be a policy problem.
Small businesses running their own domain
A hello@ address, a billing@ address and the personal account that still gets half the work. Those are three IMAP mailboxes on one domain, and paying per device to read them stops making sense quickly.
Anyone moving between machines
A desktop client keeps its state on one computer. If you read mail on a Windows desktop and a laptop, per device licensing and per device local stores both start working against you at the same time.
Households with Windows and something else
eM Client and Mailbird cover Windows and macOS and stop there. If a Chromebook or a Linux machine is in the mix, a browser board is the only thing that opens identically on all of them.
People drowning rather than switching
If the problem is not which app but how much arrives, a category and a spam verdict on every message before you read it is a different kind of fix from a new folder tree.
Where this is the wrong answer
What Inboxes does not do
It will not connect a Microsoft mailbox, and that matters here more than on most pages. Plenty of people used Windows Mail for an outlook.com or hotmail.com address. We authenticate with a user name and an app password, and Microsoft has removed basic authentication from Exchange Online and has said it intends to rely only on OAuth for Outlook.com as well. If every address you lost is a Microsoft one, new Outlook or classic Outlook is your honest answer and this page is not.
Your mail is read by our servers, because that is what a hosted client is. We are pointing at what Microsoft does with non Microsoft accounts because it happens to people who thought they were installing a local program. There is nothing hidden about it here: you are signing up for a hosted board on purpose, and the credential you hand over is a revocable app password rather than the password to your account.
There is no offline mode. It runs in a browser tab and it wants a connection. Windows Mail, Thunderbird, eM Client and classic Outlook all keep a local archive you can read on a plane. If you regularly work without signal, keep one of those for your main account.
No calendar, no contacts, no tasks. Windows Mail came with Calendar and People, and Outlook is a suite. We are a mail client and nothing else. If replacing the calendar alongside the mail is the requirement, that is an argument for Outlook or Thunderbird, not for us.
There is no permanent tier that costs nothing. Plans start at 29 dollars a month flat for five mailboxes. New Outlook carries no license fee and Thunderbird carries no license fee, and both will merge your accounts. If a single combined list is the entire problem, use one of them. The case for paying starts when the volume itself is what you are trying to shrink.
There is no native mobile app. The board works in a phone browser, but if a polished mobile client decides it for you, Outlook and Gmail both ship one and both are better at that specific job than anything we would build.
FAQ
Questions people ask about the Windows Mail app
Is Windows Mail still available?
No. Microsoft ended support for Windows Mail, Calendar and People on December 31, 2024, and the apps can no longer send or receive mail. Opening one now shows a dialog offering to open Outlook instead. Anything still on your machine is a shell that holds old messages until you export them.
Is the Windows Mail app discontinued?
Yes, permanently. This was a retirement rather than a pause, and Microsoft has published no plan to bring the app back. The official replacement is new Outlook for Windows, which Microsoft installs alongside or in place of the old app. Third party clients remain the other route, and several handle multiple accounts better.
What is the Microsoft mail app called now?
Outlook. Microsoft folded Mail, Calendar and People into one application called new Outlook for Windows, which ships with Windows 11 and is free to use with advertising. It does not require a Microsoft 365 subscription. The older desktop program, now called classic Outlook, is the one bundled with paid Microsoft 365 plans.
Why does the Windows Mail app open Outlook?
Because Microsoft wired the migration into the app itself. After the December 31, 2024 cutoff, launching Mail or Calendar shows a dialog whose only real action is Open Outlook, and Windows switched most users across automatically. It is not a bug and there is no supported way to keep using the old app.
What is the best mail app for Windows 11?
It depends on how many mailboxes you have and who they belong to. For a single Microsoft account, new Outlook is the obvious answer and costs nothing. For several accounts across different providers, Thunderbird, eM Client and browser based clients hold them all in one list, which is the job new Outlook still does least well.
What is the best Windows mail app for Gmail?
Any client that speaks IMAP will read Gmail, so the real question is what else it can hold. Thunderbird and eM Client both connect Gmail with an app password and merge it with your other accounts. New Outlook connects Gmail too, but it syncs that account through Microsoft servers, which some people are not willing to do.
What is the best Windows mail app for iCloud?
iCloud is a plain IMAP mailbox at imap.mail.me.com on port 993, so most Windows clients handle it once you generate an app specific password in your Apple account. Apple ships no Windows mail client of its own. Thunderbird, eM Client and browser based clients are the usual answers, and all of them can sit iCloud next to Gmail.
Can a Windows mail app handle multiple accounts?
Most can hold several accounts, but far fewer merge them into one list. Windows Mail did have a combined inbox, which is why its retirement hurt. Thunderbird does it through Unified Folders, eM Client through a single folder tree, and new Outlook is only now rolling out an All Accounts view.
Does new Outlook send my Gmail password to Microsoft?
Effectively yes. Microsoft documents that new Outlook syncs non Microsoft accounts, including their mail, contacts and events, to the Microsoft Cloud, and reporting has shown IMAP and SMTP credentials being copied to Microsoft servers. The setting to refuse this exists on macOS but not in the Windows version.
Why is the Windows Mail app not syncing?
If it stopped after December 31, 2024, it is not a fault you can fix. Microsoft switched off the service side of Mail and Calendar on that date, so accounts no longer refresh regardless of your settings or network. Move the account to another client and export anything stored only in the old app.
Where is the Windows Mail app download?
There is not one any more. Mail and Calendar were removed from the Microsoft Store, and sideloading the package produces an error when you try to add an account. Any site offering a Windows Mail installer is distributing something Microsoft no longer publishes, which is worth treating as a security risk.
How do I export mail from Windows Mail before it goes?
Microsoft published an export path from Mail and People into new Outlook, and it still works on machines where the app is installed. If the account was IMAP, the simpler answer is that your mail was never only in the app: it lives on the provider, so connecting the same account to a new client brings everything back.
Where is the Windows Mail data file location?
Under your user profile in AppData, inside the packaged app folder Microsoft created for Mail and Calendar. It is worth knowing only if you had POP accounts, where the app held the sole copy. IMAP accounts keep the authoritative copy on the mail server, so there is nothing local you need to rescue.
What does a Windows mail app cost?
New Outlook is free to use with ads. Thunderbird carries no license fee. eM Client sells a 59.95 dollar one time license covering one device and the version you bought. Mailbird is 2.46 euro per user a month billed yearly. Inboxes is 29 dollars a month flat for five mailboxes.
Related
Keep reading
The combined inbox, without the app store
Nothing to download, nothing to license per device, and nothing that can be withdrawn from under you. Connect Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Zoho and your own domain, and let a model tag each message before you read it.