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user more “hands on” control by displaying e-
mail waiting on the e-mail provider’s server;
thus enabling the deletion of any suspicious
or unwanted e-mail from the user’s inbox pri-
or to downloading it to the e-mail client on the
user’s computer. As a person who believes in
the adage “If you want something done right,
do it yourself,” I appreciate the direct control
MailWasher gives me to categorize e-mail
that is sent to me as coming from “friend” or
“foe” as well as to set up MailWasher to rec-
ognize and delete e-mail from specific send-
ers or domains even though it adds an extra
manual step to the process of receiving e-
mail.
The free version of MailWasher offers many
customizing options; the Pro version even
more. The screen-shot below illustrates how
I’ve chosen to display e-mail messages wait-
ing for me on the e-mail provider’s server and
how they might be categorized. Note that two
e-mail messages were automatically classi-
fied as spam and check-marked for deletion
when MailWasher’s main screen was dis-
played. Any other messages, including those
classified “Good” and “Friend,” may be check-
marked manually. Any checked messages
can also be un-checked. Clicking the “Wash
Mail” button causes the checked messages to
be immediately deleted from the e-mail pro-
vider’s server. Clicking the Thunderbird but-
ton brings up my default e-mail client to which
the remaining messages on the e-mail provid-
er’s server can be downloaded to my Inbox.
MailWasher Features
User Friendly
MailWasher is quick to install and easy to
learn. MailWasher’s extensive Help fully ex-
plains the use of the many options and the
methods of marking e-mail for various actions
— deleting, reporting spam, even returning
spam to senders — thereby training the soft-
7
ware to differentiate between spam and good e
-mail.
As with any such anti-spam program, however,
MailWasher does not detect the presence of
malware; e.g., fraudulent links, etc., that may
be imbedded within an e-mail. That the user
must still do through diligent observation of the
content of an e-mail that has been downloaded
to his or her e-mail client’s inbox.
E-mail Compatibility
The software works on all e-mail platforms,
whether these are Web-based, POP, or IMAP
servers. These include the most common e-
mail hosts such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook
Express, Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail,
Gmail, Hotmail, Incredimail, AOL, Postbox,
Outlook.com, and Yahoo with Mail+.
Supported Operating Systems
MailWasher supports the following Windows
operating systems: Windows 8 and 8.1
Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP. Ac-
cording to Firetrust’s website
MailWasher Pro 7.7 has been tested with Win-
dows 10 and no issues were found. However, I
have been unable to verify if the most recent
version of MailWasher Free works with Win-
dows 10 as well; but you can download and
install the free version to see if it does.
Free vs Pro
The adjacent chart differentiates the features
found in the two versions. Except for one year
during which I tried the Pro version, I have
found that the free version of MailWasher
serves my needs well. I use only one e-mail
address (account) and, except for an occasion-
al oops, I found the Recycle Bin feature to be
of little use — that’s not to say that I haven’t
sometimes wished to have had it available.
In addition to what is shown in the chart, Mail-
Washer Pro now includes mobility support for
iPhone and Android devices.
Summary
There’s no question that e-mail remains the
number one method for the distribution of mal-
ware with the potential to infect a user’s com-
puter. A major headache among all e-mail us-
ers alike, phishing e-mails, junk e-mails, un-
wanted newsletters, and such, continue to clog
inboxes and slow down server performance by
unnecessarily taking up capacity. By structur-
ing MailWasher around removing security