Thunderbird is great. I use it for all my email accounts. Most accounts are imap now so all you need to know is your email address and password. Thunderbird does the rest. If you have previously set up your settings to leave your emails on their servers then you haven't lost them. Thunderbird gives you that option in settings. If your settings were to take it off the server when you downloaded them, they are gone forever unless you can get them off your dead laptop/computer. Thunderbird does everything for you once you select Add Account.Follow the prompts. Put in your email address and password when prompted. Select imap which almost all email services are today. Thunderbird generally fills in all the other details. If you have a problem and have another device that you have used to get your emails then check the settings on it and copy those settings into Thunderbird's settings. I use my cellphone, laptop and desktop computer so I copy settings from one that is working to one I am setting up if there isa problem. Also check your settings to make certain you have it setup that your emails remain on their servers. That way if your computer crashes or gets stolen you will still have the ones you haven't deleted.

Download thunderbird from here https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ Then Select Add Account and enter the details. Select IMAP and you are all set.

For some unexplained reason when my laptop running Vista did an automatic update none of my Mozilla programs will run. I get an error message that the program is already running and needs to be closed before another can open. It first happened with Firefox and then the same problem started with Thunderbird and finally went to SeaMonkey. I even tried uninstalling and reinstalling each program first with the latest version then with previous versions but with no success. I ended up having to buy another laptop, which is running Windows 7. Fortunately I had synced Firefox and Thunderbird with my other computers and had left my emails on the main servers. I also ran several virus checkers with no results and have concluded the problem is with Microsoft who seems to not like Mozilla.

If you have a password program like LastPass you don't even need to remember your username or password. Thunderbird is great and I use it on all my devices including my Google phone.