The Bat! is a secure desktop email client that keeps every message on your own machine, with PGP and S/MIME encryption, on-the-fly database protection, and a deep filtering system. It suits people who treat correspondence as private data rather than cloud content.
The Bat! is an email client that stores your correspondence locally and guards it with encryption rather than leaving it in a provider's cloud. The workflow is conventional but thorough: add POP3, IMAP, MAPI, or RSS accounts, let mail arrive into per-account folder trees, and let the Sorting Office filter it into place based on rules you define. Templates with macros cover new messages, replies, and forwards, and they can be set per mailbox, folder, or address book entry so routine correspondence writes itself. Attachments are handled carefully, and a built-in viewer opens images without launching another program.
Two design commitments separate it from the current crop of clients. The first is local ownership: messages live in a database on your own machine rather than in a provider's cloud, and the optional on the fly encryption means unencrypted text never reaches the disk. The second is depth of configuration, with templates, filters, and per folder behavior that reward an afternoon of setup with months of saved effort. A portable edition installs to removable media so the same mailbox travels with you, and the professional edition adds message base encryption, biometric unlock, and hardware authentication with mail servers. Compare that with a cloud-connected client such as Mailspring: different priorities, different trade-offs.
The reason people stay with The Bat! for years is control. Mail is kept on your own disk, and on the fly encryption can ensure that unencrypted data never touches the storage layer, which matters when correspondence contains client records, contracts, or medical details. Message level privacy is covered by OpenPGP, GnuPG, and S/MIME, while server connections support current TLS versions for transport. The workflow tools are equally deep: the Sorting Office can auto-respond, forward, redirect, print, export, or run an external program on a match, not merely move messages around. Selective download and the Mail Dispatcher let you triage a POP3 mailbox before pulling gigabytes over a slow link, and messages can be parked so a careless keystroke cannot delete them. Address history shows every exchange with a contact, CardDAV keeps the address book in step with other devices, and unlimited RSS subscriptions arrive in the same list as mail. Backup and restore protects the whole configuration.
Key capabilities and highlights.
Messages, address books, and settings live on your own machine rather than in a provider's cloud, and installation can enable on the fly encryption so plain text never lands on disk. That combination suits anyone whose correspondence includes contracts, client records, or material that should not sit with a third party.
End-to-end encryption is handled by OpenPGP and GnuPG, with S/MIME available through an internal implementation or the platform certificate provider. Message level privacy works alongside transport encryption for server connections, so signing and encryption can be applied to individual messages rather than acting as one global switch.
The Bat! Sorting Office organizes incoming, outgoing, read, and replied messages into folders and can do considerably more: auto-respond, reply using a chosen template, forward, redirect, print, export, send read confirmations, or run an external program. Once the rules are written, routine filing disappears from the daily routine entirely.
Message templates use macros that pull in recipient names, addresses, dates, and quoted text, and separate template sets can be assigned to each mailbox, folder, or address book entry. Quick Templates insert prepared passages into a reply without leaving the composer, which removes most of the typing from recurring messages.
In The Bat!, the Mail Dispatcher lists what is waiting on a POP3 server and lets you read, keep, or delete individual messages before downloading anything. Selective download rules extend that control through filters, which helps on slow or metered connections and acts as a first line of defence against malicious mail.
Attachments can be saved in bulk from multiple selected messages with a single command, filed automatically by filter, or stored as separate files rather than embedded blocks. Suspicious double extensions trigger a warning and blocked launching, and images open in a built-in viewer with rotation, zoom, resizing, and printing.
The Bat! MailTicker places a scrolling banner on the desktop showing unread messages, so new mail is visible without leaving whatever you are working on. Notification sounds can be configured globally or tied to particular senders through filters, and the interface switches between languages without a restart.
The address book is the application's own rather than the operating system's, storing business and personal details, photos, groups, mailing lists, and per-contact certificates. Contacts synchronize through CardDAV, address history collects every exchange with a person, and built-in backup and restore protects mail, folders, and configuration.
Browse historical releases and previous builds.
No old versions have been added yet.
Common questions about The Bat!.
It is a desktop email client built around local storage and encryption. It handles multiple POP3, IMAP, MAPI, and RSS accounts, filters mail through the Sorting Office, supports OpenPGP, GnuPG, and S/MIME, and keeps messages on your own machine instead of a provider's cloud.
No, it is commercial software sold in Home and Professional editions with a trial period before purchase. The Professional edition adds message base encryption, biometric authentication, and hardware authentication with mail servers, and it permits commercial as well as non-commercial use.
In The Bat!, on the fly encryption can be enabled so messages, address books, and configuration files are written to disk encrypted, meaning unencrypted data never appears on the storage layer. The professional edition also offers message base encryption, and the whole setup can be backed up and restored as a unit.
It retrieves mail over POP3 and IMAP, works with MAPI accounts, sends over SMTP, and reads RSS feeds. Secure connections are supported for the mail protocols, and the IMAP implementation can open several simultaneous connections to the same account for faster folder synchronization.
The Bat! Sorting Office does more than move messages between folders. It also replies with templates, forwards, redirects, prints, exports, sends read confirmations, and runs external programs when conditions match, and it works on outgoing, read, and replied mail as well as newly arrived messages.
Yes. The Bat! portable edition runs from removable media so a mailbox and its settings travel with you, and a standard installation can point at a folder you synchronize yourself. Server side mail remains the source of truth for accounts you connect over IMAP.
It includes an import wizard that reads messages from several widely used clients and common mailbox file formats, and the address book imports from vCard, LDIF, CSV, and other contact exports. Migrating from an older setup becomes a matter of running the wizard rather than scripting conversions.
The Bat! is a secure desktop email client that keeps every message on your own machine, with PGP and S/MIME encryption, on-the-fly database protection, and a deep filtering system. It suits people who treat correspondence as private data rather than cloud content.
Microsoft.Azure.ArtifactSigningClientTools is the Windows package that installs the Artifact Signing client plugin, letting SignTool sign code and artifacts through Azure without a local certificate.
Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free, portable on-demand scanning tool from Microsoft that finds and removes malware, spyware, and unwanted software from Windows PCs without installing anything.
1Password CLI is a command-line tool that reads secrets from a 1Password account and injects them into scripts, environment variables, and configuration files at runtime, so no plaintext credential has to be stored on disk.
Element is a Matrix-based secure messenger and collaboration app with end-to-end encryption, group calls, and file sharing. It targets individuals, teams, and public institutions that want to self-host their own messaging network instead of renting one.
Comments