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The v4.81 public beta has now been re-released. We have made some changes
to ease the transition to OAUTH2 for existing Pegasus Mail + Gmail users —
in particular, the program now updates existing Gmail definitions instead of
deleting and recreating them, meaning that any current settings you are using
will be preserved.
If you downloaded and installed the previous public beta, you do not need
to install this one. You can retrieve the v4.81 re-released public beta from
the public beta page on this site.
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Version v4.81 is the culmination of a long and difficult process, adding support
for the so-called OAUTH2 "standard" as it is implemented by Google's
Gmail service. Pegasus Mail now has single-button configuration for Gmail, and
complies with all of Google's requirements for user mailbox access using its
OAUTH2 authentication scheme. That sentence really doesn't do the whole process
justice, but I won't spend any further time ranting about it here.
Because the OAUTH2 process is so complex, we are taking the unusual step of
releasing v4.81 initially as a public beta available to anyone for a month or so
before we move it into unrestricted release. While the program is in public beta,
we ask that any sites that mirror Pegasus Mail distributions do not expose the
beta archive — it is only to be made available from the
public beta page on this site.
Note to German users The v4.81 public beta is not currently
compatible with existing German language modules. New language modules will
be made available when the public beta process ends and the full release is
out.
Using the new Gmail automatic configuration function is simple: select
Internet options from the Tools menu, then click the
Gmail button on the first page. You can do this whether or not you
already have working Gmail definitions.
We do not expect anyone to encounter significant problems with v4.81 —
in testing within the closed beta test team and among public volunteers, it
performs well and we know of no notable issues; we are taking the public beta
route only out of an abundance of caution.
V4.81 isn't only about Gmail, though — it has a number of bug fixes
and one important new feature:
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Format specification for copies to self: You can now
choose what format you would like Pegasus Mail to use when storing your
copies-to-self — Reloadable, the current standard, able
to be reloaded and re-sent, Final form, not as reloadable, but
a more accurate representation of what the recipient would see, including
attachments and pasted graphics, or Both, where two copies to
self are made, one in the reloadable form, the other, displayed in a pale
blue colour, in the final form. You can adjust this setting on the
"Copies to self" preferences page in the program.
It also includes the latest work on HTML rendering by the tireless and
much under-appreciated Michael in der Wiesche.
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Despite the apparently small version number increase, version 4.80 is a major release
with some extremely important changes and additions to the program:
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Major editor update The program's editor module has
received a major update: it should now be able to edit a much wider range of
HTML data, and handle it much more reliably.
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Major HTML rendering updates Michael in der Wiesche and
Martin Ireland have put a huge amount of work into updating Pegasus Mail's
HTML rendering technology with new features and improved reliability.
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Significant new OpenSSL build This version has moved
to using OpenSSL 1.1.1k. Adopting the OpenSSL 1.1.1 API is an important
long-term functionality update that will keep Pegasus Mail in step with
connection security for a long time.
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Synchronized German Release Sven Henze has continued
his fine tradition of having the German release of Pegasus Mail available
on the same day as the English release – see the
official download page
to download the German version.
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User interface adjustments Several small but noticeable
changes have been made to the Pegasus Mail user interface to bring it a
little more into line with modern systems. These are minor alterations
compared with the changes that will appear in Pegasus Mail v5 as it
finally begins rolling out.
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Support for higher DPI systems WinPMail is now supplied
with resource sets (the pieces of data that define the layout of dialogs and
screens) optimized for both standard 90dpi Windows displays and for 120dpi
displays (what Windows refers to as "Medium"). Future versions will also
have support for the Windows "High" DPI display type (144dpi). This change
allows the program to display considerably better on higher DPI systems.
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Search improvements The folder search facility has
been updated to improve its ability to locate accented characters and
strings that appear in encoded headers. In simple terms, the program
should now search through folders more accurately, especially when
searches are limited to the message headers.
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Security improvements The program now goes to
even greater lengths than it previously did to prevent you from
running attachment content that could be harmful to your system.
Any attachment content that is potentially harmful is now also
displayed in red in the attachment view.
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Small quality-of-life fixes Numerous small changes
have been made to improve the usability of the program: to pick a
couple of examples, the columns in the preview mode attachment view now
remember their widths from session to session, and calendaring items
such as invites are now displayed more prominently in the attachment
view.
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Help system improvements The help system has undergone
numerous improvements - for instance, its user interface is now able to
be internationalized (Sven Henze's German version of Pegasus Mail now
uses the new help system). A lot of the content has been brought up to
date or expanded, and a significant number of new index entries have
been added.
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OAUTH2 support for GMail This feature isn't in this
release, but I'm mentioning it because it's now very near to completion.
I decided that it was more important to get v4.80 out than to hold it up
even further while I complete the OAUTH2 implementation, but there will
be a v4.81 update very soon after v4.80 that includes the OAUTH2 code.
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