Thanks to everyone who responded to my query.

I recognise and accept that running multiple instances of PM might now be the norm but it seems a bit of overkill to me, consuming system resources (however minimal) and cluttering up the desktop with additional shortcuts and presumably the system tray with multiple icons so I'm not minded to go down that route - I'm perfectly content to run a single instance of PM, thereby monitoring only a single mailbox, and changing user as and when I need to check another mailbox.

I've adopted the suggestion about implementing a custom button in the toolbar and have put the following into a toolbar.pm file that resides in C:\Program files\Pmail so is invoked for all seven of my usernames:

0,10249,0,1806,"Change user"
0,801,0,1801,"Compose a new mail message"
0,802,0,1802,"Open or re-scan your new mail folder"
0,803,0,1803,"Work with your mail folders"
0,804,0,1804,"Open or manage address books"
0,805,0,1805,"Edit or manage distribution (mailing) lists"
0,807,0,1807,"Create or manage rules for filtering your new mail"
0,808,0,1808,"Open or browse noticeboards"
1
2,840,0
1
0,823,0,1823,"Print the current window"
0,824,0,1824,"Select a font for the current window"
0,828,0,1828,"Send all queued mail"
0,827,0,1827,"Check your POP3 host for new mail"
1
0,829,0,1829,"Both check and send mail in one operation"

Putting the 'Change user' button as the first one in the toolbar means that it's in a very similar position on the screen to the 'File' menu option, so my mouse-hand doesn't need to point the cursor somewhere completely different on the screen...  [:)]  It's surprising how one gets familiar with the position of certain functions on a screen, especially after using an app such as PM for the best part of 20yrs!

I've installed the new custom toolbar on both my original WinXP machine that's still running PM V4.21c and on the new Win7 machine that's running v4.70 and it seems to behave just fine in both cases, so many thanks to SvenH who originally suggested using a custom button.

 Re: the issues previously caused by having the 'Change user' function in the File menu list, I assume that because the custom button is invoking the same system call (10249) there's a possibility that the issues might also occur when using the custom button, or will they.....??

Regards

-- 

Martin

Pardon me if I'm dense....

I just installed V4.51 (from 4.41), and I no longer see "Change User" in the drop-down menu under File. Did it move? Go away?

I use more than one email address, as different users, and I frequently switch among them.  Do I have to exit now and restart Pegasus to change users? My computer is pretty fast, but that seems kind of awkward.

Help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

The function change user has been removed since it was causing crashes on many systems and could not be fixed.  I the place of this function you can use the -ms commandline option to run multiple instanses of Pegasus Mail.

Create a new shortcut for each user similar to this.

1.  Right click on the WinPMail shortcut and select "Properties".

2.  Select the "Shortcut" tab.

3.  Edit the "Target line" to add the commandline option.

A commandline option will generally look like the following:

c:\pmail\winpm-32.exe -i thomas -ms

"c:\Program Files\pmail\winpm-32.exe" -i thomas -ms

Note: before I posted, I did the search box (top right) for Change User and did not get a solid hit. Nothing on V4.51 lack of Change User. 

But I then scrolled thru the posts AFTER I posted, and ran across references like:

http://pmail.praktit.se/forums/post/10978.aspx      which DO refer to Change User.

This one says add the "-ms" switch to the command line and it allows multiple instances of Pegasus to operate.  I take this to mean that I have to open a new instance for each identity/address I use, and close 'em when I'm done, but at least I don't have to open/close Pegasus each time I want to check a different user. I can open them and leave them up until I am all done.

Right?

Hi Rich,

You questions might have already been answered in the meantime. However, here a few lines which might help.

The so called "Change User" function, as you know it from the "Start -> Change user" menu, has been removed in the new version of PM (*). HOWEVER, there are two alternative ways to continue, and one might actually be even more appropriate and easy to use for you, depending on your demands of course. E.g., I have several (more then 8) 'users' (not strictly speaking) with different emails on different servers (including different signature profiles etc.) defined and can switch between them from within PM through a drop down box. The function I use is called 'Identities' and is found under the 'Tools' menu. And the drop down box you get by selecting Options > User interface > Toolbars > POP3 user.

Especially if you are the (only) one who is using different 'users' on your PC you can also define different 'users' as 'identities' instead, and in that way access different mailboxes (e.g.POP3), etc. Every time you switch the (user through selecting a different) identity you also switch all your setting for that user as defined under "Tools -> Options". So, that might actually be what you need!?

However, there are of course some fundamental and conceptual differences behind this distinction of 'users' and 'identities' as defined in PM and I guess elsewhere. It might get a bit blurry depending on the way one use it. However, 'users' are probably more thought of being different (real life) persons who e.g. use the same computer whereas 'identities' are different ways the same person represents him/herself.

Based on the above distinction, the main difference I can see between the 'Change user' and 'Identity' is the stronger separation of the data and hence with 'Change user' you have completely different user directories on your hard disk (e.g. such as ../user_x1, ../user_x2, ../user_x3, etc) were all the inboxes, folder and email files reside for the different users, and with identities ONE user shares multiple identities (which could be different 'users') and hence all the data is in the same directory. From within PM all identities share the same PM inbox and folder tree. The way you would present yourself to the outside world would be no different though.

From what you have described, I would actually think that you might be better off using identities as you can switch the way (as whom) you send messages while at the same time you can still look at all the emails from all identities without switching. Migrating you data (emails and folders) from the various users into one might be a bit tricky or laborious? Check the forum or maybe someone else could respond.

1. option - using different 'users' as before:
As described by Thomas R Stephenson before
- Start various instances of PM with one user per instance. They can run at the same time.
- Just switch between parallel running PMs if you want to 'change user'

2. option - using different 'identities' for the various users:
Use 'identities' for the various users
- Pick principle user you want to use in future (best the one which has most data)
- Define different identities within that principle user based on you old users information (now identities)
- Migrate data (emails) from other users (check forum for options, I might have a crude way of doing it)

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Thomas

PS: (*) There had been lengthy and heated discussions on the change user functionality and I believe that it will not come back.

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

I'll investigate ID's further, and it is nice to see I have a couple options.

It's a good program!

Rich

Because I thought Pegasus seemed dead, I was in the process of converting to Thunderbird when this new version arrived. Thinking Pegasus had now revived - become a Phoenix? - I upgraded. However, I am shocked to find this (to me) essential feature has been lost. Neither of the two alternatives offer convenience - I have ten 'users' - must I make a short cut for all? I already use identities to change between office and traveling mode; adding 'users' would make this very complex.

Is there hope that this feature will be reinstalled? If not I shall sadly (after 12 years!) have to abandon Pegagus. In the interim I have gone back to v4.41...

Chris

[quote user="wartaaids"]

Because I thought Pegasus seemed dead, I was in the process of converting to Thunderbird when this new version arrived. Thinking Pegasus had now revived - become a Phoenix? - I upgraded. However, I am shocked to find this (to me) essential feature has been lost. Neither of the two alternatives offer convenience - I have ten 'users' - must I make a short cut for all? I already use identities to change between office and traveling mode; adding 'users' would make this very complex.[/quote]

I understand that it's very complex to have a shortcut for each user, but isn't it simple to close PM and to reopen it  with a new username?

 [quote]

Is there hope that this feature will be reinstalled? If not I shall sadly (after 12 years!) have to abandon Pegagus. In the interim I have gone back to v4.41...

Chris[/quote]

There is no chance to have this feature again, as it caused crashes, and reinstalling it would mean to rewrite that part of the program, too much work for a non essential feature.

How do you have this feature under TB? I'd be very interested to know it.

Regards

> There is no chance to have this feature again, as it caused crashes,

and reinstalling it would mean to rewrite that part of the program,

> too

much work for a non essential feature.

Let's not call this a "non-essential feature". Too many people are complaining about its demise. Ok, there are workarounds it, and we must live with it, but it was still a very important and useful feature...

I'd like to add my voice to this. I've been a forever PM user and just upgraded and was surprised to see this feature gone. I do not want 10 instances of PM running with all my other tasks and I liked having PM my first item on my task bar so it was easy to find throughout the day and now closing and opening it for each user switch throws it at the end, or somewhere is in the middle as I open other tasks. Just not as efficient for me. I actually downgraded back to the previous PM version to regain use of this feature. I know its not coming back but I wanted to add my voice that I definitely did not see this feature as non-essential.

I didn't use the "Change User" function but clearly many people relied heavily upon it. I believe that identities and, if necessary, using the "Add mailbox to list..." option are (and have always been) the proper way forward. Certainly identities are designed for exactly what these people have been doing - presenting a single individual in different ways via one login. Each identity has its own options, signatures, sending and receiving servers, etc which is brilliantly simple and useful once you understand it.

However, given that so many people are gnashing their teeth and seem unable to work without it, can David not re-insert an option labelled as "Change user" but all it does is close and reopen Pegasus, thereby prompting for a new login? That wouldn't have crashing issues, surely?

I would like to add my voice to those who are upset about the removal of "Change User" option in V4.51.

Having to access 9 mailboxes I found it an invaluable feature. In using PM for many years, I have never experienced a "Change User" crash either on Win95, Win98 or XP.

It would be too cumbersome to use the workarounds suggested. I guess this means going back to V4.41 for me......

I've been a PM user many years also.  It's such a great e-mail prog.  I'm a sgl user with many users.  I used "Change User" many times a day.  In all that time I NEVER had a crash.  There were other instances where a crash occured & they seem to have been resolved with 4.51.

The close/reopen method is what I'm currently doing ... boring, tedious, frustrating.

Moving to another e-mail client??? ... have considered this.  Yet interrupting current workflows is just more work & time taking my focus away from goals.

Setting up identities ... same same.

Adding the "Change User" box to close & reopen PM has been the best suggestion so far.  Thank you.

> I've been a PM user many years also.  It's such a great e-mail prog.  I'm a sgl user with many users.  I used "Change User" many times a
> day.  In all that time I NEVER had a crash.  There were other instances where a crash occured & they seem to have been resolved with
> 4.51.
>
> The close/reopen method is what I'm currently doing ... boring, tedious, frustrating.

Why close and reopen, with the -MS commend line option you can simply open the other account on it's own session.  It's certainly a lot better that making a change user a close and reopen with all the data that has to be written to the drive on closing.

FWIW I've got 4 instances currently running on my 1 GByte WinXP system and there is no significant impact that I can see on my system.

[quote user="mpk.taon"]

I've been a PM user many years also.  It's such a great e-mail prog.  I'm a sgl user with many users.  I used "Change User" many times a day.  In all that time I NEVER had a crash.  There were other instances where a crash occured & they seem to have been resolved with 4.51.

The close/reopen method is what I'm currently doing ... boring, tedious, frustrating.

Moving to another e-mail client??? ... have considered this.  Yet interrupting current workflows is just more work & time taking my focus away from goals.

Setting up identities ... same same.

Adding the "Change User" box to close & reopen PM has been the best suggestion so far.  Thank you.

[/quote]

I don't know if some of you even know that the "Change User"

function can still be used by creating a custom toolbar button? See

here for more details for customized toolbars:

http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/18130.aspx    (menu code for the change user function is 10249)

Sven

Thanks, Sven.

I have never checked to see whether PM can be customized. Seems like a good time to start.

Any other places to get general info about PM customization, codes, scripts etc.?

I don't know if there is a place where all information is available completely, I doubt it. Several suggestions, though:

- the community, in particular this: http://community.pmail.com/forums/53/ShowForum.aspx
- the file "bpanel.txt" in the resource directory of your Pegasus Mail installation (for toolbar customizing)

As far as I know, Pegasus Mail is not "scriptable". The filtering rules f.ex. are one of the (if not *the*) best on the market.

Sven

Thanks for the suggestions, Sven.

 Marco

Thomas:

Thanks for a good post. I have been a long time user and found "Change User" indispensable  and miss it dearly, I know its free software so all I can do is make a polite suggestion. The "Identity" function makes my head swirl, I don't understand its purpose or usefulness and really wish I  had a "Change User" Icon in the toolbar or the old menu item it would make my life a whole lot easier. In my opinion, the loss of this feature takes the luster off a really fine product . Change User always worked for me and was EXTREMELY helpful managing multiple mail servers and keeping the data well organized. I will miss it.

greg

Create your own custom toolbar button and you wioll have your "Change User" back. It's just as simple as that. See

here for more details for customized toolbars:

http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/18130.aspx

   (menu code for the change user function is 10249)

Sven