I use the free and awesome hMailServer on my dev box so that I can test my email functions and not just get mail() errors!

hMailServer is a free, open source, e-mail server for Microsoft Windows.

It is quick and painless to set up…

1. Download hMailServer
2. Run the setup exe
3. Supply and confirm password
4. Accept default locations
5. You will be given the opportunity to run hMailServer at start
6. hMailServer opens with a password prompt
7. the Welcome screen is displayed
8. click the Add domain button
9. Domain: yourdomain.com (or normally 127.0.0.1), ensure the Enabled checkbox is selected, click Save
10. Your new Domain now appears in the Domains list on the left
11. Under Domains, expand your new Domain and select Accounts, and click the Add button on the right
12. On the General tab, enter details, eg: Address – admin (the @yourdomain.com is already available), Password
13. You will receive a warning if your password is too weak
14. Your account now appears in the tree on the right
15. You might want to set up PHPWebAdmin…
    1. I set up a virtualhost in Apache (don’t forget your Windows hosts file – C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)
    2. You will most likely receive the following message in browser your “Please rename config-dist.php to config.php. The file is found in the PHPWebAdmin root folder.”
    3. Make the following changes in the config file:
       $hmail_config[‘rooturl’] = “http://phpwebadmin.localhost/”;