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The Bat!

Developer(s)	Ritlabs, SRL
Initial release	March 1997; 22 years ago (1997-03)
Stable release	8.8.2 (February 22, 2019; 50 days ago (2019-02-22)) [±]
Operating system	Windows
Size	110 MB
Type	Email client
License	Shareware
Website	ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/

The Bat! is a shareware email client for the Microsoft Windows operating system, developed by Ritlabs, SRL, a company based in Chişinău, Moldova. There are two versions: a Home version and a Professional version. The Professional version includes a portable module, The Bat Voyager.
^[1]

Reviews

Reviews indicate that The Bat! has been regarded as an alternative email client for email users who seek a strong emphasis on security, as well as having many customization and filtering options, yet has also been criticized for its complexity and difficulty in learning.

• 
  The Bat! 2.0, February 17, 2004


• 
  The Bat! 3.6 Professional review, February 17, 2006


• 
  The Bat! 4.0.34 - Spooky Good E-mail Client, October 15, 2009


• 
  The Bat! 5.0 email client released, promises better stability and security, April 7, 2011


• 
  The Bat! Professional Review, July 5, 2011


• 
  The Bat!, June 14, 2012


• 
  The Bat! Professional Is Not an Easier Email Client, July 11, 2012


• 
  The Bat! 7.1 Windows Email Program, October 9, 2016


• 
  The Bat! Professional 7.1.14, April 5, 2017


• 
  The Bat! Review, February 1, 2018


• 
  The Bat Review, May 2018

Features

The Bat! supports POP3, IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange Server email.

Data security

• 
  Encryption. The internal PGP implementation based on OpenSSL lets users encrypt messages and sign them with digital signatures. Digital keys manager is included. PGP up to version 10.0.2 is supported. The Bat! supports S/MIME via Internal Implementation or Microsoft CryptoAPI, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) v3.0 / Transport Layer Security (TLS) v1.0, v1.1, and 1.2 (as of version 8.5) with AES algorithm.


• 
  Internal HTML Viewer. The Bat!’s internal viewer used to support HTML 4.0 and CSS v2.0 formatting, while ignoring scripts and executable code. The Bat!’s HTML viewer blocks viruses that use the known HTML vulnerability of Microsoft Internet Explorer (such as IFRAME and Automatic Execution of Embedded MIME type).


• 
  Safe handling of attached files. The Bat! checks attached file extensions and blocks them launching if they are suspicious. The Bat! warns users of double extension attachments and allows users to see the real extension.


• 
  Selective download. Messages can be deleted or left on POP3 servers by setting up respective filters in the Sorting Office.

Productivity

• 
  Sorting Office. A filtering system that sorts incoming, outgoing, read, and replied messages to folders; auto-responds; replies with custom templates; forwards, redirects, prints, or exports messages; sends read confirmations; runs external programs and more.


• 
  Message Templates and Macros. Email templates contents may be dynamically changed through the use of macros, which can also be used to automatically execute other user-defined functions such as cursor positioning, addressing changes, identity changes, active account changes and other.


• 
  Microsoft Exchange Connectivity. The Bat! connects to Microsoft Exchange Server using native MAPI protocol to fetch or send messages.


• 
  Multilingual Interface. Support for 18 languages.


• 
  IDN support. Support for IDNs that contain characters from non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic and Greek. IDN support includes Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics, such as those found in French and German.

History

• 1.0 Beta, the first public version, was released in March 1997. It supported folders, filtering, viewing HTML email without the need to have Internet Explorer installed, and international character sets. It also had a special feature named Mail Ticker.


• 1.00 Build 1310, the first stable version, came to public in March 1998.


• 1.32 introduced a proprietary layout engine on 27 April 2000. Versions up to 1.31 was used the THtmlViewer engine by David Baldwin.


• Version 2.0 (September 2003) introduced IMAP support, a basic HTML editor, Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus Plug-ins and a Scheduler, and could import messages from Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express
  


• Version 3.0 (September 2004) introduced customizable User Interface, virtual folders, Mail Chat, Biometric authentication and support of MAPI protocol to connect to Microsoft Exchange Servers.


• Version 3.95 (December 2006) supports IPv6.


• Version 4.0 (February 2008) has Address History option, Favorite Folders sets and URL manager for HTML images retrieval. The Bat!'s text editor supports Unicode, internal image viewer supports rotate, advanced resize and zoom algorithms and full screen mode.


• Version 4.1 (December 2008) adds HTML templates, support for SOCKS proxy, and a new mail database format that allows for an unlimited volume of mail.


• Version 4.2 (June 2009) adds postponed sending.


• Version 5.0 (April 2011) improves support for IMAP protocol, hints, folder information HTML templates, image downloader, odd/even row contrast.


• Version 5.1 (April 2012) adds Inbox Analyzer, image download manager, message tags, hints, external HTML viewing module and Multi-SMTP option.


• Version 6.0 (November 2013) supports International email addresses.


• Version 6.1 (December 2013) supports SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.1 protocols.


• Version 6.2 (January 2014) introduces Summary View.


• Version 6.3 (March 2014) comes with the internal implementation of the RSS feed subscriptions.


• Version 6.4 (April 2014) Address Space Layout Optimization adds extra safety for The Bat!


• Version 6.6 (August 2014) support for Windows Touch technology on desktops and laptops with touch screen as well as hybrid devices and Windows 8 tablets.


• Version 6.7.20 (February 2015) adds separate 64-bit installer.^[2]
  


• Version 7.0 (August 2015) adds address book sync (CardDAV) and support for the EWS protocol (MS Exchange Server 2007 and later).^[3]
  


• Version 7.1 (January 2016) adds OAuth 2.0 authentication with Gmail and Mail.Ru.^[4]
  


• Version 7.2 (July 2016) features faster email download in POP3 accounts and overall performance improvements.^[5]
  


• Version 7.3 (September 2016) adds support for Perfect Forward Secrecy and Elliptic Curve Cryptography.^[6]
  


• Version 7.4 (December 2016) The Bat! v7.4 keeps up with ultra-high-resolution displays. ^[7]
  


• Version 8.0 (November 2017) has upgraded the HTML editor, AVX-512 use, fixes and improvements.^[8]
  


• Version 8.0.18 (December 2017) publishes stability updates. ^[9]
  


• Version 8.2 (January 2018) overcomes Mailsploit vulnerabilities. ^[10]
  


• Version 8.2.4 (January 2018) has performance improvements. ^[11]
  


• Version 8.2.8 (February 2018) fixes issues introduced in v8.2.4. ^[12]
  


• Version 8.3 (March 2018) New Features in TheBat! and Voyager v8.3 ^[13]
  


• Version 8.4 (June 2018) New Message Editing Features in The Bat! (including HTML Styling) and Voyager v8.4^[14]
  


• Version 8.5 (June 2018) TLS 1.2 in The Bat! 8.5^[15]
  


• Version 8.6 (August 2018) New Features in Message Editor^[16]
  


• Version 8.7 (December 2018) Major Maintenance Release^[17]
  


• Version 8.8 (February 2019) Major Maintenance Release^[18]
  

System requirements

Compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and later versions. No minimum requirements for memory size or CPU speed. Runs on any Windows PC platform with at least 1024x768 screen resolution, and on Windows tablets.

See also

• Comparison of email clients


• Comparison of feed aggregators

References

External links

• 
  Official website