Solved Solved: running Eudora 7.1 (very old) in Windows 11 Pro (22H2)

Unfortunately, I have to support some PCs running old Eudora 7.1. It's a long story for a very unusual client.

Eudora 7.1 runs fine in Windows 10 (22H2 and prior versions) but this customer is getting ready to buy Windows 11 PCs.

Various helpful online posts provided enough info to make Eudora work in Windows 11. Whew.

Here are steps I cobbled together from scattered online posts. They might help the dozen or so remaining Eudora 7.1 users forced into Windows 11.

After installing Eudora (with default locations, though installing in the root might be best), the following 3 things made Eudora work:

(1) updated Eudora 7.1's SSL by downloading HermSSL.zip from HERMES Mail - Browse Files at SourceForge.net expanded the zip and ran vcredist.exe, which created another folder, then exited Eudora and copied libeay32.dll QCSSL.dll rootcerts.p7b and ssleay32.dll from the new folder made by vcredist.exe to Eudora's program folder and "replaced" if prompted.

(2) enabled the "Ports" feature in Eudora by exiting Eudora, copying esoteric.epi from Eudora's "extrastuff" folder to Eudora's main folder, then starting Eudora and going to Tools, Options and scrolling way down to "Ports."

(3) for gmail (maybe necessary for other email providers, too), created an app-specific password in the gmail acct for use in Eudora because gmail won't trust ancient Eudora with regular gmail user/password credentials even without 2FA enabled; tested with IMAP and POP3 email ok (only problem was some delays in Eudora when deleting email in the wimpy test PC running Windows 11; that might not happen on more powerful Windows 11 PC).

NOTE: you might have to run Eudora 7.1 as adminstrator (either right-click or change the Eudora shortcut's Properties: Shortcut, Advanced, Run as administrator)

When this customer finally retires, I'll never have to support Eudora 7.1 again.

PS Eudora users are obsessed with its search feature, which to me doesn't seem superior to modern search features in browser-based email like gmail.

PPS Eudora 7.1 and previous versions have a critical design flaw that's a nightmare: it mixes drafts and sent mail in the same "Outbox" (folder/mailbox) and therefore needs a separate db file to keep track of which emails were sent and also which have various user-applied labels; the db gets corrupted about once every year or two; creating a fresh db file often loses track of which emails were sent and also loses user-applied labeling, leaving the user to wade through the Outbox to try to remember which are which.

Ugh.

I am using Eudora 7.1.0.9 on a new Windows 11 machine, and everything is working fine except that the contents of popup/popout windows that contain more than 80 or so lines run off the bottom of the screen so that you cannot see some of the content. An example on my machine would be to right click a message, select Transfer, and select a folder with more than 80 mailboxes. Is there a setting in eudora.ini or an x-options setting that could remedy this, or can you think of a way to address this? My graphics card is an NIVIDIA GeForce RTX3060, and my monitor is a Samsung LC27G55TQWNXZA 27.0" set to a resolution of 2560 x 1440. I have attached a screen shot of the problem. Thank you for any advice you can offer!

JJH1947 said:

I am using Eudora 7.1.0.9 on a new Windows 11 machine, and everything is working fine except that the contents of popup/popout windows that contain more than 80 or so lines run off the bottom of the screen so that you cannot see some of the content. An example on my machine would be to right click a message, select Transfer, and select a folder with more than 80 mailboxes. Is there a setting in eudora.ini or an x-options setting that could remedy this, or can you think of a way to address this? My graphics card is an NIVIDIA GeForce RTX3060, and my monitor is a Samsung LC27G55TQWNXZA 27.0" set to a resolution of 2560 x 1440. I have attached a screen shot of the problem. Thank you for any advice you can offer!

Click to expand...

Thunderbird might be a better bet --you can import settings from eudora althouh the sheer number of possibilities and options on thunderbird means probably for a lot of people serious I.T expertise might be needed -- but it;s still a good FREE email client without any account limitations etc.

Thanks for that idea. I've been using Eudora for so long, and it works so well for me, that I do not want to move to another email client. Apart from changing clients, do you have any additional thoughts?

To all of those that have successfully made Eudora work, can you let me know who you used for an email hosting provider. I have a die hard Eudora client that is having trouble making it work on both Windows 10 and 11. His new machine came with Windows 11 so I reinstalled Eudora and used the Hermes patches, port patch etc. His personal domain was registered with GoDaddy and he is using the Outlook mail service they offer. Currently he is able to send but not receive. The host just denies the connection stating bad login. Any help you can offer with regards to who to use for email to keep his domain would be greatly appreciated.

Just want to add that I in order to make SSL work in Eudora 7.1 on two PCs (Win11 and Win10) today, I also followed the file-copying instructions in the readme.txt in the unzipped HermSSL folder from HERMES Mail - Browse Files at SourceForge.net as specified in #1 in my original post.

Then in Eudora, Tools, Options, scroll way down to Ports (if missing, add esoteric.epi from Eudora's "extrastuff" folder to Eudora's main folder as specified in #2 in my original post) set SMTP to 465 and leave the other ports blank.

Then Tools, Checking Mail, "Secure Sockets when Receiving" to "Required, STARTTLS" (and check mail then go back to Tools, Checking Mail then press the "Last SSL Info" button, then, if necessary, trust and manage certificates and install and repeat if neccesary -- I forget the order).

Then Tools, Sending Mail, "Secure Sockets when Sending" to "Required, Alternate Port". "Required, Alternate Port" was the only way sending mail with SSL worked with the provider.

I received and sent email with Eudora 7.1 through SSL with my client's email provider (an old timey regional one I don't recommend).

Regarding Thunderbird, et al, yes, I agree, but my client rejected numerous alternatives I had them test, so I keep maintaining Eudora 7.1 on their 4 PCs.

Just a note: I use Comcast (sadly) as my mail server. I run Win 11. Thank you to the latest hack of changing the PORTS to SMTP 465 & leaving the others blank - it worked!! Anyone new to this forum needs to download the HERMES.zip before doing anything else. It is at: HERMES Mail

I have included a file with a general outline of my fixes so far...

Hmmm. For a while there, there was a "Eudora 8" skin / theme, if you will, that ran with Thunderbird as its underlying code, and I used that for a while.



The good thing is that this can be installed side by side with Eudora 7.x as they are functionally separate applications (Eudora and Thunderbird, or as that user in the first link said, Thundora (Eudorabird?)

Because of this they could test it out SxS with their current Eudora 7 and see if they like it or not (or, well, will tolerate it enough to use it).

It's still pretty old, in and of itself, but it might work for them, and if it saves you the headache of having to patch (and then endlessly fix / repatch) their existing Eu7 installs, that, in and of itself, might be a win.

Wouldn't it have been nice if one could simply change Eudora-->Properties-->Compatibility-->set for Windows XP Serv. pk 2 and have that work. But nooooo. My wife's new Lenovoa IDEAPAD FLEX 5i with Windows 11 is finding her old Eudora 7.1.0.9 POP3 a bitter pill to swallow. Years ago I converted to Thunderbird, but stopped their incessant updating to keep the version I like.
Will try the above, but there are carelessly too many paranoid backups and Eudora stuff that I'm going to somehow find what data files are the ones that functioned fine in an older Windows 10 Lenovo. The DEudora (or was it Eudora.ini) file points to non-existent USER DOC file and location, doubtless a vestige from a Windows 8 or XP machine from days of yore.