Hi, I've used Pegasus Mail from its first introduction and thought knew all its quirks, particularly when changing PCs or moving mail folders to a laptop.

I'm running a fresh install v4.73 on Win7_64. but because i want my mail folders secure I've installed it on a Veracrypt encrypted drive. Pmail opens and runs to its default setup folders.

However, I have a working install with a large mailbox going back years which I want to migrate to the new installation, then prune the folders for only one year of previous mail.

I copied the MAIL folder to the new install and I'm met with a window:

User name, please "In order to access your mailbox you must enter your Pegasus mail username. Please type it below"

I'm assuming this is coming from pmail not Windows, but what is it? I've never encountered a mailbox security access message before and I don't know what Username it's looking for or where I can find it?

Help appreciated - Thanks

Did you overwrite an existing MAIL directory or did a MAIL directory not exist in the new installation so you copied in your old one?

I did a clean install to the encrypted drive which Veracrypt creates as an NTFS virtual drive from an encrypted folder. I tested that and it installed and ran ok with the default mail folders. I then copied my source mailbox 'MAIL' which had the same folder name and saw both Programs and MAIL folders on the drive. When I executed winpm-32.exe I got the security popup window. In all these years I've never seen that or found anything posted about a Pegasus user name or ever knowingly used one to start the application? The screen has the color and look of pmail but does it come from Windows, or does pmail think it's being installed as a network mail server?

I repeated the above, but this time on a spare NTFS hard drive partition (not Veracrypt) and it worked although I have issues with the Pegasus mail desktop link which I've met before. Sometimes the desktop start link doesn't work so I go to the .exe in Programes, create a new link and it works. Curiously both Windows links can be edited to look the same but they have different files sizes? I haven't looked at each link yet with a hex editor to see if there's some code created by the installer.

One step forward, I decided to keep the startup program files on a normal NTFS drive and change the home mailbox (MAIL folder) to my old MAIL folder copied to the encrypted virtual drive. That works with no security popup at the start. The application seems happy running on a standard partition and accessing files in Windows C: as it does normally. I've often wondered why pmail can't install and run standalone with its own resources.

Now it runs and I begin pruning my large folders for the last year of mail from about 10 years! Ah--g why can't I highlight and invert the selection - nothing is easy. I have some multiple folders to delete but have to delete individual mail contents first. I think this pain is why I avoid housekeeping my folders.

Now I got it working I decided I should rename 'MAIL' to 'MAILfrom2021' on the laptop because if I didn't, I might one day think it was a backup and overwrite my desktop mailbox. I couldn't work out how to do it from within pmail (although I could MOVE the mailbox). In the end I had to rename the mailbox, repeat the install and point it to the renamed mailbox.

I used to know where all the settings where to locate the mailbox and other configuration variables, but these seem to have changed or I can't edit them the way I used to. The config settings must be in the Programs folder or Windows for pmail to find them when it runs?

I'm happier I have now found a way to keep my mail folders on an encrypted drive. If I dismount the drive the pmail desktop link does nada as I would expect. The requested startup login window I got still puzzles me.

Thanks for your reply.

I'm glad you have it working.

The configuration files for each Pegasus Mail user are in that users new mailbox directory, typically a subdirectory of \MAIL in a multi-user installation. The file that contains most of the configuration settings is PMAIL.INI. If you are unsure about where your New and Home mailbox directories are you find that information by going to the Help pull-down menu, selecting the "About Pegasus Mail..." option, and then clicking the "Info" button.

At startup, the Pegasus Mail looks in the PMAIL.CFG file for the location of the new mailbox directory. That file is located in the \PROGRAMS directory. It is one of the few configuration files in Pegasus Mail that should not be edited with a text editor. PCONFIG32.EXE must be used to change the destination of new mailbox directories.

In a multi-user installation will contain a file named PMAIL.USR. It resides in the root mailbox directory and contains a list of Pegasus Mail users and their permission status (Admin or User).

Pegasus Mail can run "uninstalled". You can copy a Pegasus Mail installation from one PC to another. The caveat here is that the path to the mailbox directory(ies) must be identical on both machines. A disadvantage to running uninstalled is that Pegasus Mail can't be designated as the default mail program so Mailto/Sendto links won't work.

Your frustration with housekeeping folders is surprising. Folders can be deleted without first deleting messages. The sort order of messages in a folder is easily changed by clicking on a column heading (toggles ascending/descending). You can select a range of messages using the Shift>Click method. Managing old messages can readily be done using a filtering rule that deletes or moves messages older than a specified number of days. Attaching that rule set to a folder as a folder-open or folder-close filter set automates the process.

Something to consider in the future is that you can leave an old mailbox structure in place and attach it to the folder list of a new installation. You can leave it attached or you can copy desired messages from it to the new installation and then disconnect it. One frustration here is that you can't do copies or moves at the folder level. You must create a folder in the new installation and then copy/move messages to it.

Thanks, info on the config files is really helpful. I still have a 'folder guide' in my archive but I think it related to older versions of pmail and it's no longer 100% accurate.

I already fell into the trap of thinking I could text edit PMAIL.CFG and if you do it breaks the installation. I think I got to PCONFIG32.EXE via the GUI. But what I couldn't do was simply rename the Home mailbox in its location. I thought I could rename it in file explorer, then find a startup configuration file or .ini and edit the mailbox name. I've often wondered whether somebody has ever produced a script that can save a configuration of all the network settings mail aliases and settings etc to have them imported into a fresh install. It would save a lot of work.

I had to delete several years of mail leaving the last 2 years. When I tried to delete a mail sub folder, pmail told me to delete all the folder messages first? The then I wanted to do block deletes and usually the windowss context menu offers the file option to 'invert a selection' - i.e mark the first 2 years of mail after a date sort then invert to mark seven years that follow, because there are too many screen entries to scroll and highlight for deletion. The context menu within pmail under EDIT only allows 'Select all' without the inverse option.

I think I found a quicker way which is to search all mail folders for the 7 year date range, select all and delete leaving the last 2 years behind. In case any body reading this gets alarmed at aggressively deleting so much, I have the master pmail mailbox folders and structure saved and backed up on a desktop PC. One small nuisance is pmail dumps everything into its deleted folder, but that gets cleaned on exit, or you can delete again.

Housekeeping is becoming more important now because I've noticed my mailbox size getting bigger and with slower indexing. I used to think 2kb was about right for a message, but now with online auction sites and automated delivery tracking, messages with HTML content are about 75kb.

Thanks for reminding me of setting filtering rules to manage older messages. I think the reason I've not used it for automation is I've had occasional corruption crashes, usually if I hadn't spotted a huge attachment. Then after pmail lockout I've had to search the PMI/PMM files (Usually the last) and delete it to recover, maybe also use the re-index command. Minimising pmail activities seems to keep it reliable for me. In nearly 10 years of filling up my mailboxes I've never been unable to recover after a crash or corruption and I've only lost a few messages.

The reason I thought pmail couldn't run stand alone is it still creates files in C: even though I install on another partition away from the OS. There's a Pegasus Mail folder in Appdata\Roaming and I think temp folder space is also used?

Do you know if startup links created by the pmail installer contain hidden config data or switches? I can always start pmail from the Winpm exe, but after an install and reconfiguring a mailbox, the original link may not start anything, even though it appears to be pointing to the pmail exe? The same happens if I re-install pmail to a new location, changing the link properties to point to the new location exe doesn't work.

Thks again - vox

Holding the Ctrl key down while clicking the Delete button will do an immediate, permanent delete (bypasses the deleted mail folder).
Edit: Holding the Ctrl key down while clicking the Yes button will do the immediate, permanent delete (bypasses the deleted mail folder).

That's useful to know.

There are too many variable for a script to be practical. Going about it is unique to each installation.

If you've ever wrestled with setting up a Pfsense software router, being able to save a confifuration and restore from it is a lifesaver when just one incorrect firewall filter change can leave it dead in the water.

Thanks for explaining files saved by the renderer. An obvious question, but couldn't pmail have used its install location by default, then it would be truly portable? I'm sure I've installed pmail on a flash drive and it must have worked between different pcs? Its the sort of thing a travelling person might want to use the same mailbox on a desktop and laptop, although many may prefer syncing IMAP, great until you can't get a mobile connection.

What amazes me about pmail is it's survived all the variants of MS Windows, updates, fixes and is still very versatile and configurable. The only problem I get and accept is it doesn't always show messages well with embedded HTML, e.g those emails you get from holiday flight booking companies. But that ensures a level of protection and I'd rather manually post a web link into a browser using my security settings or save the message as .htm and open it in the same browser. Unfortunately, many want the easy life of clicking once and rendering messages with embedded content without understanding the risks.

Creating a mobile instance, with everything self-contained on a flash drive, requires the following:

• an installation to the flash drive, or copy an installation from a PC (mailbox location is a consideration)
• use the -ROAM command line option
• create directories on the flash drive for the temp files and the image cache then edit the configuration to point to themI had one such an installation that I used when I travelled (this was before IMAP). I had Pegasus Mail installed on my desktop PC with a copy on a flash drive. The flash drive instance was configured to download messages but not delete them from the server. The desktop PC could then download them as well. Two problems with this were that it was difficult to keep the mailboxes in sync (you can't just copy or "sync" because the configurations had to be different), and you couldn't easily get a copyself copy of a message sent from the portable instance to the desktop instance. A BCC to yourself works but it not the same as a copyself copy. IMAP is definitely the way to go now.I had another portable instance on which I did all of my Pegasus Mail support work. That flash drive traveled with me to work and on vacations. In fact, that is still running, copied to my laptop after I retired.

Regarding HTML rendering, if you follow IERenderer development you have a sense of the challenges Michael faces with the evolving world of HTML, especially considering how big players like MS and Google do their own thing, ignoring RFC rules. He is exceptional at overcoming the challenges but they never end. Like you, I am a 'view it in a browser' guy. You mentioned saving a message as .htm then opening the file with a browser. In case you don't know, there is a right click > "Open message in a web browser..." function that is available when viewing an HTML message.

Found this post while struggling with the same popup asking for a username - unfortunately, none of the replies actually address the issue! Did you fix it with (yet another) fresh install, or is there a way around it...
Thx

Just seeing this, so not sure if this helps.
Back when Pegasus originally started it was mainly used for Novell Networks Bindery Info.
Started with the DOS version way back with Novell 2.2 and 2.15.
With that setup, the Pegasus would link to the Novell network user directory for storing mail, so the user id was gotten from the Novell network. Similar thing with Novell 3.x. Novell 4 went with a new NDS (Novell Directory Services) and mail setup was the same.

Eventually had the windows version, and it could work with the Novell or with standalone or multi-user setup. Each was a little different. With Novell you selected to match you Novell Server. If you were running a single user setup you would use the -A on command line, and it would use the /PMAIL/MAIL as the mail folder for a single user. If you were using multi-users on windows you could add the -I username with the short-cut to not have to enter the user name on startup.

Think the -A still works, but is not the default setup with a clean install, so it makes a /PMAIL/MAIL/Admin folder in setup. Then you can create multiple users.

So, I'm thinking you were running with a Single user setup, but your clean setup set it up as a multi-user setup so is prompting you for name. So, think adding the -I username to the shortcut would solve that or creating a new shortcut with it..

My setup still uses the single user so, I have the -A and mail is in /PMAIL/MAIL

Did a test setup with the multi-user, and it created Admin with /PMAIL/MAIL/Admin, and then created a user Jack and another Jill. Use shortcuts with -I admin or -I Jack or -I Jill to access them.

I run Pegasus under linux with wine, and it sets up a wine directory for each unix user, but then can have multi-users under each user.

For mine. The real mail folder is /home/msetzerii/.wine/drive_c/PMAIL/MAIL for me.
Test setup has:
/root/.wine/drive_c/PMAIL/MAIL/Admin
/root/.wine/drive_c/PMAIL/MAIL/Jack
/root/.wine/drive_c/PMAIL/MAIL/Jill

So, think you just need the -I username option added to shortcut

Thanks for that. I did try the -I switch, though, and it refuses to believe that there is a user account called Admin or any variation thereof, despite what the PMAIL.usr file says >>; PMAIL.USR Pegasus Mail user database.
A;Admin;Mail Administrator

See what the contents of the PMAIL.CFG file in the /PMAIL/Programs directory has in it?

It is a binary file but that type command should show basic contents.

With my single user setup it has.
C:\PMAIL\MAILC:\PMAIL\MAIL
Has C:\PMAIL\MAIL followed by NULL to 66 then again.

With the Multi-user setup it has
C:\PMAIL\MAIL~NC:\PMAIL\MAIL~N

the pconfig32.exe program will let you set it.
First screen asks for program directory C:\PMAIL\Programs is what it shows for me.
Continue then shows mailbox root as C:\PMAIL\MAIL~N
Clicking on ? gives more info.
Gateway options is all blank.
Quit and no save unless you change something. Make sure to backup file first.
For Me.
./WINPM-32.EXE -I Admin
./WINPM-32.EXE -I Jack
./WINPM-32.EXE -I Jill
Give me each of the 3 users
./WINPM-32.EXE has prompt window show up asking for user

With my regular Standalone version
./WINPM-32.EXE -I Admin
./WINPM-32.EXE
./WINPM-32.EXE -A

All open my regular user
Under Help the Command line help shows more things.

In the PCONFIG32.EXE interface:

• On the first screen use the Browse button to select the Pegasus Mail \Programs directory (typically C:\PMAIL\PROGRAMS)
• On the second screen enter the path to the root mailbox directory followed by ~N. The root mailbox directory is the directory that contains the \ADMIN directory. In a default installation this is C:\PMAIL\MAIL~N. Note: This is not applicable to an installation done with a v4.7x installer during which a mailbox was not preconfigured. That is a whole different can of worms.).
• Ignore the mail gateway section unless it is applicable (you are running your own mail server (eg: Mercury/32))
• Save and Exit

Note: This may not work. It is dependent on how you went about getting Pegasus Mail onto the new PC. Those details weren't provided hence my "this may not work" disclaimer. Worthy of note is that the PMAIL.CFG file is not a plain text file so can not be edited, but, it can be viewed with a text editor which allows you to confirm the paths it contains. Be extremely careful when looking at it. Any edit will break it.

Hello VOX

I get the same which user message EVERY time I start Pegasus.
That is because I chose Multi-User during the setup of Pegasus.
Each user has its own folder.
(The one I use nearly every time is called NET).
Here are images for the folder structure and Addresses > User Management

Couple things. In MAIL directory should be a file call PMAIL.USR

On my test setup it has
cat PMAIL.USR
A;Admin;Mail Administrator
U;Jack;Jack Hill
U;Jill;Jill Hill

So that shows info instead of (None)?

Second, you can create separate short-cuts that add -I username
WINPM-32.EXE -I Jill
So you could click on the shortcut for the account you want to connect to rather than having to type the name each time.