This is a rewrite of an article I originally wrote in 2009. I’ve left the only comment I got on this article previously because Peter (who used to go by Sire) was the first person who ever purchased this product from me. Also, this article has an affiliate link, which is underlined in blue. It’s the same product as the one over there in the right sidebar. I’ve read often that if you write a review post about a product you actually use and like that it will drive sales of that product. Let’s see how true that premise is.

Back when I was warning folks about hidden messages in email, I mentioned Mailwasher for the first time. I wrote this review originally because I was trying to let people know that there was a safe way of checking email that protects their computers as opposed to downloading email and then looking at it. There’s not a lot that’s changed since that first review except a few things about how it looks; that and I can update the review a bit since I’ve purchased the latest version.

Mailwasher is a software program that allows you to check your email while it’s still on the server. It doesn’t care what you use as an email program, so no worries there; you can even include your Gmail accounts. By checking email while it’s still on the server you get to decide what you’re downloading to your computer and what you want to eliminate early. You get to see the links that are either hidden in email or that are legitimate while it’s still on the server to validate whether those emails are good or not. If you decide to “wash” away the emails you don’t want to do, it removes them from the server… once again including Gmail.

Let’s start with what it looks like. On this post you’ll see a small version of it but I’ll add links you can click on to see them much bigger and clearer. Here’s a screenshot of the program in use:

Here’s the link to the larger image. As you can see from my example, there are categories in the top section of the program which you can not only put into any order but you can select which ones you might want to remove and others you might want to add. You’ll also notice different colors. I have 6 email addresses, and I’ve made each one a different color so I know which accounts they’re for. I also know that from the last column, but it doesn’t hurt to have it more than once.

In the image you’re looking at, you’ll notice everything at the top is bold. That means I haven’t clicked on any of them, so they’re all new items. If you look at the bottom you’ll see a portion of the very first email at the top of my list. You see the link telling me that it’s from an autoresponder; in this case I know the newsletter coming from my friend Kelvin, so I know it’s all good. I have the option of using the slide bar on the far right to scroll and read the entire newsletter there or pull up the separation bar in the middle to see more or less of the email. That might help if you’ve received something you want to know more about from a source you don’t recognize.

You might also notice that the last email on the list has a check mark on what looks like a trashcan in the 2nd column. You can decide whether to blacklist certain email addresses or mark them as friends. I play email chess and I get email notifications when it’s my turn to move, but I don’t need to download them. I didn’t have to necessarily put them on my blacklist but it saves me the time of having to constantly click the trashcan to remove them before I download everything else. By the way, Mailwasher has its own way of determining what it considers as spam or junk, so you can decide whether to accept its recommendations or not.

This next tab is the recycle bin; here’s the link to the larger image. Every single email you erase off the server is saved in this area for up to 60 days; you can change that in the settings area, as I only save mine for 3 weeks. If you accidentally removed something or you want to look back to see if there’s something you missed, you can find it in here.

If you need to restore it all you have to do is right-click on it and click Restore and it’ll show back up in your email… only it’ll show up on your default email address, which you’ll indicate in the settings area. The one thing you need to know is that if there was an attachment it won’t save that; it’ll only save emails up to a specific size, which pretty much means only text.

Finally we have the settings area; here’s the link to the larger image. There are way too many things to do here for me to get all that specific about. In essence, from here you control how you want Mailwasher to work for you; the email addresses you want it to check (including color schemes); how you want it to check for spam; how you want your main window to look ; and whether you want it to sync with a mobile version of the program… which I can’t talk about since I didn’t buy that program.

I’ve been using this program for about 14 years now. I’ve only ever had one email slip through in all that time that had a virus on it, and that wasn’t the program’s fault, but timing. A few months ago I decided to buy the latest version of the program and I paid for the lifetime updates. This means I never have to buy it again; yay for me! 😀

I swear by this program, and I really do believe that anyone, from those of us with a bit more web savvy than others, or those with very little savvy whatsoever, should be using this bad boy. Every time I learn that someone has a virus on their computer, I think of Mailwasher and wonder why more people aren’t using it.

Probably because they haven’t read this review. Now that you’ve read it, think about your safety and see if you believe you could use a little bit of help. Trust me, the price is worth it.

Also… going back to the idea of an updated article, this time I’ve kept the same article link since I’ve referred to this one multiple times over the last 9 years. I don’t have to worry about hunting every article down and changing the link; whew! 🙂