I Have Email Trouble

I have been experiencing email client trouble. I have a Dell Inspiron 1721 laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium. I had Windows Live but I don't like it because it won't let you use image sigs it only recognizes text and html files. I feel that using html signatures would compromise the integrity of my emails. I hate Windows Live Mail. Lady Firelady sent me a copy of Outlook but I couldn't get it to run, I think it needs a driver.  I tried to find Outlook Express but they sell that now, it's $29.99. I tried Incredimail but it connected to Windows Live Mail when I clicked reply and opened the write from that program. Then it had some sort of system tray problem and Windows Solutions prompted me to download another version of Incredimail, this would solve the problem. When I tried to download this fix Windows prompted me that the version of Incredimail I had installed was newer than the one that I was downloading.
My Mozilla Thunderbird email client is duplicating my emails and even restoring old emails but I'm using it again.
This is very aggravating