My old laptop (running under Win7) died so I had to get a new one running under Win10.

So far I am impressed - it found my WiFi router quickly though it was just as well that I had written down its access code. It also let me install my legal copy of MS Office with no pain. Installing Chrome as a browser was not problem.

The only outstanding issue is that it did not like it when I installed Thunderbird (my preferred email client), I think because (duh...) I did not write down the Thunderbird password that my ISP gave me - I have contacted them using a temporary gmail account about this.

So far, so good.

Your ISP gave you a password for Thunderbird??
Is it a password to open the Thunderbird program, or is it the password to access your pop email account?

I've used Tbird for years, and no ISP ever gave me a password...I chose my own, for the master program access and my pop email accounts..

When you get Tbird all set up and your favorite browser too, you can copy & save/back up your profiles for each and save them to a usb flash drive or such.

It is so easy to have the back up profiles in case of a crash & reinstall, or new machine..
how to - profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb

If you can access files on the old hard drive you might be able rescue the profiles on it. Did the old hard drive fail or something else on the old laptop?

Thanks Jo*mar.

I chose a password to access my Tbird accounts but stupidly did not save it on any other device. With luck my ISP can sort this for me. I have saved my Tbird profile in the usual format (alphabet soup.default) on my external HD and can see all of my old messages there. Once the password problem is solved I should be able to reinstall it as it was before.

The old laptop died because of a fatal HD crash. Fortunately the important stuff was backed up on my external HD so I have been able to put everything back on this one.

Make sure you create an offline account with Windows 10. If you should ever be without internet access, you will not be able to log on to your computer without an offline account. I am not sure if this is still a problem or not, but when I tried Window 10 last year, I had a hard time accessing my files on my laptop when our internet was down for a short time.

I eventually went back to 7. Window 10 ran a little too slow on my old out of date laptop. Hope it works well for you.

Thanks for the tip Alaina - just in case I have made an off-line account.

Your saved passwords should be in the old profile... the Master & the email words..
Unless you didn't save them in the Tbird program and typed them in each time?

I’ve done this many times with trying out various Linux distros..and past Windows crashes, when I still used Windows.
How to import your old profile into the new Tbrid program....

Install fresh newest version of Tbird from Mozilla - click to open it, when the screen to add email account or make one comes up, just close the program.
plug in external drive or a flash drive so you can access the old saved profile.

this is easier that me typing it all out-
[ Note: If you just installed Thunderbird on a new computer, you can use the default profile that is automatically created when you first run Thunderbird, instead of creating a new profile.
Locate the backed up profile folder on your hard drive or backup medium (e.g., your USB-stick).
Open the profile folder backup (e.g., the xxxxxxxx.default backup).
Copy the entire contents of the profile folder backup, such as the mimeTypes.rdf file, prefs.js file, bookmarkbackups folder, etc.
Locate and open the new profile folder as explained above and then close Thunderbird (if open).
Paste the contents of the backed up profile folder into the new profile folder, overwriting existing files of the same name.
Start Thunderbird. ]
full details here- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb

But if it is the Master Password to open the Tbird program, and you forgot it, I believe you can find the certain file and delete it so no password , then you can make a new password..

[Forgotten Password (Tbird)

If you have lost or forgotten your master password or you want to disable the feature, you can reset the master password. Resetting the master password will remove all stored password information. Upon resetting, you will lose all the stored information in the Password Manager, as this is a built-in security feature to prevent people from simply resetting your Master Password to gain access to your passwords.

Choose Tools -> Error Console
Paste the expression
openDialog("chrome://pippki/content/resetpassword.xul")
Press the Evaluate button.
Accept when prompted with the confirmation dialog box. ]
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...aster-password

If you do that , you will still have your backup files accessible to replace passwords to the email account/s , if you don't have them memorised..or written down..

If those ideas don't help, them I am totally confused about what password you need..

Thanks Jo*mar - that is very helpful and detailed information which I appreciate.

is this thread only for Thunderbird users and Win 10?

Does this Win 10 potential affect those who do not have
Thunderbird?

Mrs D

Most of what is being discussed on this thread is for Thunderbird, and how to reset passwords to be able to log back in to your Thunderbird account. My short post is about setting an offline password was for Windows 10 only, nothing to do with Thunderbird, and I am sure that makes things a little confusing. I am sorry about that. I hope that helps a little more.

Oh, okay,, thanks. I am not very computer savvy...so I really didn't understand what was going on here. I am a bit paranoid about Win 10 still, as some of the updates, and the original download, blocked my graphics program (Corel/Jasc). We have had to reinstall it now 3 times!