Thunderbird:Help Documentation:The Options Window

General

System Defaults

Always check to see if Thunderbird is the default mail client on startup

You can make Thunderbird check to see if it is registered as your system default mail program, whenever it starts up. When Thunderbird is your default mail program, mail links from other programs, such as your web browser, will open in Thunderbird. Click on Check Now to have Thunderbird specifically check to see if it the default program for mail, news, web feed (RSS), or a combination of the three.

Thunderbird Start Page

When Thunderbird launches, show the Start Page in the message area

When you start Thunderbird, there is a welcome page, that is displayed in the message pane. Using this option, you can disable the start page, or set it to go to any web page you choose, by entering the URL in the Location field. If you want to restore the default start page, click on Restore Default.

When new messages arrive

You can set Thunderbird to alert you, in different ways, when new messages arrive.

Show an alert

With this check marked, an alert will pop up in the bottom right of your screen, telling you that you have new messages, as well as provide info, such as which account(s) have new messages, how many new messages there are, and more, which you can set by clicking on Customize....

Play a sound

Thunderbird can also trigger a sound file, to play when a new message arrives

Default system sound for new mail

With this option selected, Thunderbird will use the new mail alert sound, as designated in your operating system's setting.

Use the following sound file

With this option selected, you can choose a specific WAV file, that will play, when new messages arrive. Press Browse... to pick a file on your computer; and press Play to hear the chosen file.

Message Preview Text

This will make new mail alerts contain a sample of the text in the new messages.

Subject

This will make new mail alerts show the subject of each new message.

Sender

This will make new mail alerts show the sender of each new message.

Display

Formatting

Colors

Plain Text Messages

Fonts & Encoding

Tags

Composition

General

Addressing

Spelling

Privacy

Junk

E-mail Scams

Anti-Virus

Passwords

Attachments

Advanced

General

Network & Disc Space

Update

Automatically check for updates to...

You can have Thunderbird check at startup whether there are any updates available to Thunderbird itself and/or add-ons that you have installed.

When updates to Thunderbird are found...

Thunderbird can download and install updates itself, or it can prompt you to ask whether you want it to install now or later. Thunderbird can also let you know whether installing an update to the application will disable any add-ons.

Show Update History

Displays a list of all the updates that have already been installed.

Certificates