What he said :)

This is getting too complicated. :)

Yes, I have my own domain and an e-mail address associated with that domain. They work properly.

I also have another email address that I've had for dogs years that is hosted by an ISP. I do not own that domain.

A couple of days ago I destroyed my primary computer and bought a new one. I've been rebuilding my filesystem since then.

Since that time, it appears that even after I quit Thunderbird, my mail is still being read (for my original email address). I want to find and resolve that issue, not work around it.

Something else is holding open Thunderbird. Either the exe isn't actually terminating, an extension is remaining in memory or something else is happening, but it seems pretty clear that the client is remaining active in memory. Logging out your system will certainly make sure that the app terminates. Or you can log in with nothing else running and then see what other processes launch when Thunderbird starts to see if that helps you find some other app that is remaining in memory.

Are you running something like ThunderTray that puts in in the system notification area?

Try removing t-bird, download and re-install. Your settings, etc should be saved.

If you have any add-ons and you still have the problem, try disabling the add-ons one at a time.

The suggestion to move to google apps was because you really want an imap email server, and all that's currently available to you is pop. An imap server won't have these issues even if you have multiple email clients running. It's up to you if you want to stick with a pop server. If you think that's too complicated, I don't know what to tell you. You are trying to fit a round peg into a square hole, and of course that doesn't work.

-David

One part of my job is to support the mailserver software that all of these POP, IMAP, SMTP, AJAX, etc. clients connect to. I will probably be manning a booth in Vegas at NXTcomm08 next week. Believe me, I completely understand the ramifications of my choices. :)

This Vista/Thunderbird/Webmail issue is a weirdness that I want to understand. It is an anomaly and thus a challenge.

I'm intrigued by the idea of the Thunderbird UI closing and yet leaving the process running, but I haven't been able to duplicate that. That is why my W.T.F OP.

Sorry if I mislead anyone, but I'm trying to figure out what is going on, not looking for a workaround.

Have you taken a look through the Thunderbird bug datase?

Capital suggestion! I had not done that. Thanks :)

There are several bugs filed about the process remaining after an exit. I will see if they give me a clue.