I use Outlook 2003 but i got hacked by a Russian Hacker in Pattaya posing as a seller for a motorcycle via craigslist. I know he's Russian cuz i googled his email and it led to a Russian site downloading malware to people entering the site. Chrome detected it before i entered the site.

The emails he sent me had some sort of script in them. Now emails (spam) under my email address are getting sent out using script and some emails aren't making it to my inbox... and every time i type the letter 'e'....there is a space before and after the e, like this (th e) ....and has already affected me in 4 extremely important emails.

Yes i have antivirus installed but it did not detect it.

So i would like to switch email programs, any suggestions? Or just log straight into gmail, or use the email service on my shared server?

Most times with Hotmail all that is required is you to change your password. Have you tried this yet? Am no outlook expert, so that is the only advice from me.

Thunderbird is a good free client, but it sounds like the problem is malware on your machine. Definitely change your password, but bear in mind this may be again be captured by whatever malware is on your machine. Try a virus scan in safe mode first. Use Malwarebytes and Spybot scans in addition to your usual antivirus. Restore OS to a point before this happened etc. If all else fails, backup important stuff and reinstall OS.

plenty of alternate email progs, malware & virus checkers etc with reviews and they're FREE

www.download.com

Thunderbird is a good free client, but it sounds like the problem is malware on your machine. Definitely change your password, but bear in mind this may be again be captured by whatever malware is on your machine. Try a virus scan in safe mode first. Use Malwarebytes and Spybot scans in addition to your usual antivirus. Restore OS to a point before this happened etc. If all else fails, backup important stuff and reinstall OS.

+1 for Thunderbird

ok this is weird i uninstalled Outlook, then reinstalled it...but all the settings and old emails are still there. <deleted>?

Scanned with antivirus again and found nothing after deleting and reinstalling that also. Deleted many weird MS visual c++ redistributables dating back to 2008 also (laptop is a 2010)

delinked ms word as the text editor for outlook now so we'll see if that helped anything.

Thunderbird is a good free client, but it sounds like the problem is malware on your machine. Definitely change your password, but bear in mind this may be again be captured by whatever malware is on your machine. Try a virus scan in safe mode first. Use Malwarebytes and Spybot scans in addition to your usual antivirus. Restore OS to a point before this happened etc. If all else fails, backup important stuff and reinstall OS.

i agree about Thunderbird as a client

and also agree that your machine needs a thorough check over for malware and viruses

The Bat! is the world's best email client. Used it for many years, still love it. Great macro, template, and filter features.

Thunderbird is slow and bloated and messes up its database if it starts compacting while you're online. It's a moving target, constantly being developed leaving your extensions obsolete. Been there, done that; no more.

Pegasus Mail is better than Thunderbird IMO but the interface is a bit unintuitive.

Foxmail is quite good but the handling of IMAP may be iffy.

Might give a try to Microsoft Security Essentials, it's free.

Outlook is an intruder's Disneyland, and MS knows it, so I would think they'd have something especially for your kind of mess.

I once did an assignment at a software company, somebody sent a virus via Outlook to compromise their network, took a few days to get rid of it.

So many email programs out there and so many fake reviews dont know which one to trust ...

Pocomail seems interesting though, they dont use visual script and utilize their own code, but it cost.