Roaming Computing System (Windows Edition) 3 - Thunderbird (from Mozilla)

Tame Thunderbird 3.0.5 or 3.1.0 so that it doesn't automatically sync IMAP mail to a person's workstation in an organisation because they have roaming user profiles on Windows that would result in C: partitions filling up. There is the old 'work offline' and the new 'auto-sync'. We want neither. Thunderbird's IMAP sync feature gives minimal improvement for a lot of pain.

References:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_3.0_-_New_Features_and_Changes#IMAP_Accounts
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Thunderbird/Deploying_Thunderbird_in_the_Enterprise/Upgrading_Thunderbird_in_the_Enterprise
• 'If I disable migration wizard I'm in situation where all IMAP -folders are set to download no matter what I do to account in question (Needs a way to keep offline-use setting upon migration to Tb 3, even if Migration Assistant is disabled on purpose)' - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=562589. This is fixed in 3.0.5 and 3.1.

* Don't 'keep messages for this account on this computer' (a 'work offline' setting).
GUI: 'Synchronisation & Storage -> Message Synchronising -> [] keep messages for this account on this computer'
Pref(s): mail.server.default.offline_download (on by default, unless specifically turned off by the use of mail.server.serverX.offline_download)

Don't confuse this with 'auto-sync, this just allows them to be downloaded when go offline or close Thunderbird. Auto-sync bypasses this setting like one big version equivalent to this.

Controls whether or not newly created folders get flagged for downloading offline [TB 3.0.0 - 3.0.4]; additionally in TB 3.0.5+, setting to "false" prior to first run of TB 3 will prevent the IMAP folders from being set to offline download (which they would otherwise have been by default)

// Synchronisation & Storage -> Message Synchronising -> [] keep messages for this account on this computer
// This is a 'work offline' setting
// When an IMAP folder is created or subscribed, set offline use=off
// Flags account for offline sync when go into offline mode or choose to sync manually.
// You need to turn this off _before_ the migration from Thunderbird 2 to 3.0.5+ else // auto-sync will be enabled upon migration. In 3.0.0 - 3.0.4 auto-sync would be enabled anyway.
pref("mail.server.default.offline_download", false);

* Don't 'Synchronize all messages locally regardless of age' (an 'auto-sync' setting).
GUI: 'Synchronisation & Storage -> Disk Space -> Synchronize all messages locally regardless of age - off'
Various relevant prefs:
mail.server.default.autosync_offline_stores - false
mail.server.serverX.autosync_offline_stores - false
? Also there should be no mail.server.serverX.autosync_offline_stores=true

If above setting, folder property of offline-use=on/off becomes irrelevant to auto-sync because auto-sync is disabled, and the offline-use=on/off is used for download at "Work Offline" only.

This ignores whether the folder is configured as an offline folder or not.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Offline_folders#AutoSync

// Synchronisation & Storage -> Disk Space -> Synchronize all messages locally regardless of age - off
// Synchronises all messages locally with server when access folder / mailbox.
// This is an 'auto-sync' setting
pref("mail.server.default.autosync_offline_stores", false);

* 'Synchronise the most recent [1] [Days]' (a 'work offline' setting).
GUI: 'Synchronisation & Storage -> Disk Space -> (*) Synchronise the most recent [1] [Days]'

// Synchronisation & Storage -> Disk Space -> Synchronise the most recent [1] [Days]
// This is a 'work offline' setting
pref("mail.server.default.autosync_max_age_days", 1);

* 'Don't download messages larger than 50KB' (a 'work offline' setting).
GUI: Synchronisation & Storage -> Disk Space -> [*] Don't download messages larger than 50KB
Various relevant prefs:
mail.server.default.limit_offline_message_size - true (defaults to 50KB)
mail.server.serverX.limit_offline_message_size - true (defaults to 50KB)
mail.server.default.max_size - XXX
mail.server.serverX.max_size - XXX

// Synchronisation & Storage -> Disk Space -> Don't download messages larger than 50KB
// This is a 'work offline' setting
pref("mail.server.default.limit_offline_message_size", true);

* Disable the Migration Assistant
Defaults to true.
Prevents users being asked if they want to enable auto-sync. Available in Thunderbird 3.1 and onwards.
We could lock this pref using lockpref, which is an option that should be considered, but that would prevent the option from _ever_ being used and there might be an occasional sane situation in which to use it.

// Don't display the Migration Assistant when first open a Thunderbird 2 profile in Thunderbird 3
// so users aren't given the opportunity to enable auto-sync.
pref("mail.ui.show.migration.on.upgrade", false);

Done

// Advanced - wait [5] seconds before marking a message as read - on
pref("mailnews.mark_message_read.delay", true);

// Privacy - Anti-Virus - Allow anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages - on
// Download each e-mail to a separate file before adding to Inbox
// http://kb.mozillazine.org/Download_each_e-mail_to_a_separate_file_before_adding_to_Inbox
// Antivirus software
// http://kb.mozillazine.org/Antivirus_software
pref("mailnews.downloadToTempFile", true);

Disable sending in HTML

Done - When setting it up in a multi-user environment

Update → Automatically check for updates to: - Thunderbird - off
pref("app.update.enabled", false);

Update → Automatically check for updates to: - Thunderbird Extensions and Themes - off
pref("extensions.update.enabled", false);

User optional

General → Use Thunderbird for RSS feeds

Composition → Spelling → Check spelling before sending

Unsure

Composition → General → ? → I think we enforce plain text elsewhere

Privacy → General → Allow remote images if the sender is in my Personal Address Book - ? (if on, can use in combination with this: Composition → Addressing → Automatically add outgoing email addresses to my: [Personal Address Book | Collected Addresses])

Done - Account settings

//  - Composition & Addressing - Composition - Compose messages in HTML format - off
// This will be set only for the first identity
pref("mail.identity.id1.compose_html", false);

OpenPGP Security - Enable OpenPGP support (for Enigmail) for this identity

Security - Digital Signing

Security - Encryption

See Matt...

Not Done - Account settings

Mailbox location defaults to Thunderbird profile directory \ Mail \ Local Folders \ <account name>. See discussion later.

Local Folders - Message Storage - Local Directory: - defaults to Thunderbird profile directory\Mail\Local Folders

? user_pref("mail.identity.id1.doBcc", false);

? user_pref("mail.identity.id1.doBccList", "");

Other

Composition - Addressing - Address Autocompletion - Directory Server: X
	user_pref("ldap_2.prefs_migrated", true);
	user_pref("ldap_2.servers.default.filename", "default.mab");
	user_pref("ldap_2.servers.default.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
	user_pref("ldap_2.servers.default.uri", "moz-abldapdirectory://default.mab");
	user_pref("ldap_2.servers.history.filename", "history.mab");
	user_pref("ldap_2.servers.history.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
	user_pref("ldap_2.servers.pab.filename", "abook.mab");
	user_pref("ldap_2.servers.pab.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);

Unsure about this...

User settings: user.js

Global settings: defaults\pref\mailnews.js

Modify Thunderbird settings: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Modify_Thunderbird_settings

THUNDERBIRD PER-USER SETTINGS

CREATING AN ACCOUNT

we could keep a copy of a prefs.js and give it to each new account? but there are directory names in there. there's a setting for relative or absolute for prefs isn't there?

CREATING AN OUTGOING MAIL SERVER

mail.identity.id1.smtpServer - smtp1
	mail.smtp.defaultserver - smtp1
	mail.smtpserver.smtp1.auth_method - 0
	mail.smtpserver.smtp1.description - <ORGANISATION> Mail Server
	mail.smtpserver.smtp1.hostname - server
	mail.smtpserver.smtp1.port - 25
	mail.smtpserver.smtp1.try_ssl - 0
	mail.smtpserver.smtp1.username - 
	mail.smtpservers - smtp1

%APPDATA%\Thunderbird\profiles.ini

[General]
	StartWithLastProfile=0

	[Profile0]
	Name=default
	IsRelative=1
	Path=Profiles/owbeefaj.default

	[Profile1]
	Name=test-remote-profile
	IsRelative=0
	Path=E:\thunderbird-profiles
	Default=1

from a separate thunderbird.txt file:
- Junk Mail Controls
- Trust Junk mail headers set by "SpamAssassin"
- Move incoming Mail determined to be junk to: "junk" on local folders
- Automatically delete junk messages older than 30 days.
- When I manually mark messages as junk "Move to the junk folder"

mail.imap.max_cached_connections - did we use this or not?
Sets the total number of IMAP server connections Messenger will hold open at a time, provided the server can support them. Caching connections improves the responsiveness of message folder access because the IMAP connections don't have to be closed and reopened. Each open Folder window uses one connection. One connection is always kept cached for the Inbox. The default is 10 connections. The potential range is from 1 , upward. The appropriate setting for a given intranet depends on the memory capacity of the machine hosting the Messaging Server, and the number of message folders users need to keep open. This preference is lockable, applies to Communicator 4.5 and later versions, and is available on all platforms.
- http://www.warpdoctor.org/lib/info/jsprefs.htm (possibly a good resource to keep, this site)