I have not upgraded to 38 yet due to all the problems with new upgrades but i believe this indicates the numbers of unread messages in this folder or subfolders.

Quote from release notes: For the unread column we should be providing the number beside the name of the folder so people can see how many are actually unread. I'm not sure why we haven't been doing this all along. This should be on by default.

• Inbox (2)*

That started with 38.1.

It means a subfolder of the folder, eg, a subfolder of Inbox has an unread message.

So a number next to Inbox without *, shows how many unread messages are in the Inbox main folder. A number with * means at least one of the unread messages is in a subfolder of Inbox and isn't visible unless you expand the list under Inbox by clicking the arrowhead next to Inbox.

When you expand the list, you'll see how many unread are in Inbox and how many are in the subfolder. In this view, the * disappears.

Don't know if there's a way to disable this feature...

EDIT: Airmail types faster than I do. :o))

Thanks Hero,

Now I know what it is, but what bone head asked for it? The folder with nested folders has always been hi-lited if there were any new messages in the nested folders. That has been one of the major reasons I have used Netscape and now Thunderbird. The * is an annoying total waste of time. I do not want or need a * to tell me there are messages in nested folders. If there is no way to disable this new feature, I will return to the previous version and stay there forever. This is unfortunate as I will loose all future updates to Thunderbird in order to defeat the *!

WRBauer said

...what bone head asked for it?...

Well, don't blame me...

I think the * is annoying too, but I'm learning to ignore it.

Check the release notes for 38.0.1 before reverting to an earlier version to make sure you won't be giving up any important bug fixes and/or security patches.

How do I uninstall 38.1.0 or back out the 38.1.0 update?

No Asterisks for me! I hate to say it but I may have to resort to Outlook!

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/

I'd export (back up) all my mailboxes and address books before trying to revert to the prior version, just to be safe.

Zenos' link says "firefox". This one says "thunderbird":

previous versions

One more thought...

If you leave all your mailboxes expanded (eg, you've clicked the arrowheads so you see all subfolders) and leave them that way, you won't see those * again.

Might be easier than reverting to the previous version...

I installed version 31.8.0 which took me back to before *. Everything else is working fine now. Then I turned off the automatic updates

I too noticed that the first link was for FireFox. I substituted ThunderBird for FireFox and was able to find the previous versions.

Once again life is good.

I am hoping that the programming wizards that created the Asterisks from hell will soon make them an option so that I can once again accept updates.