Mail in Windows 8.1: how Microsoft is finally giving it some power

Mail in Windows 8.1

You can print from the app bar as well as the Devices charm in the new Mail app.

Mail in Windows 8.1

Mail uses the new options for having multiple windows in an app very well. If you get a messages with images attached, you can see them as thumbnails. When you click to open an image, the Mail app calls the new Photos app, which gets a large window automatically. If there are several images attached, you can swipe or click through them in the Photos app without going back to Mail each time.

Mail in Windows 8.1

Reply to a message and your reply appears inline, at the top of the existing window. If you want to see a second mail message at the same time to refer back to or to copy from information from, you can open that in a second window. When you do that the message you're working in stays the same size and other windows – like the photos in the original message – get smaller to make room.

Mail in Windows 8.1

If you prefer, you can have the inbox open in a small window while you're writing your reply as well.

Mail in Windows 8.1

You can open a message in a second Mail app window, directly from the app bar, whatever the size of the original Mail window and the screen space gets divided between them.

Mail in Windows 8.1

When you select the sender of a message in the new Mail app, you can see the same kind of contact card for them that you get in Outlook. Other apps can connect to this, so you might be able to make a Skype or Lync call directly form here. One possible feature we might see in IE 11 is being able to call phone numbers in web pages by clicking on them in the browser; as the Mail app if actually an HTML app, if that makes it into IE 11, it should work in email messages too.

The way Mail synchronies messages will change in Windows 8.1; instead of only downloading the first 20K of each message if Mail is running in the background and only getting the rest when you click on a message, it now looks at how your PC is using power (which Windows 8.1 can now tell apps about). As long as you're not on a metered network, as long as the screen is on Mail will download more of the message and it will download attachments. If you're on AC power, even when it's running in the background Mail will now download the full message.

Mail in Windows 8.1

There are more options to set in the new Mail app, including colours and fonts.

The Windows 8.1 Mail app has new features for businesses as well; it supports the Information Rights Management settings you can apply in to documents and messages SharePoint and Windows Server and Outlook, so if you're not supposed to be able to print, forward or copy an email or attachment, Mail will now stop you doing that. It can even stop you taking a screenshot, which it can't block in Windows 8.

Contributor

Mary (Twitter, Google+, website) started her career at Future Publishing, saw the AOL meltdown first hand the first time around when she ran the AOL UK computing channel, and she's been a freelance tech writer for over a decade. She's used every version of Windows and Office released, and every smartphone too, but she's still looking for the perfect tablet. Yes, she really does have USB earrings.