IMAP

Select the Use the “Deleted Items” Folder with IMAP Accounts check box if you want Windows Mail to move items you delete to your Deleted Items folder. This behavior is usually helpful. If you clear this check box, Windows Mail leaves deleted items in your message list until you delete them from the IMAP server. This is the way IMAP is supposed to work, but many people find it odd to delete an item but have it remain in place.

Message Threads

Select the Mark Message Threads I Start as “Watched” check box if you want Windows Mail to set a watch on message threads that you initiate. This setting is usually helpful.

Reply/Forward

Select the Compose Reply at the Bottom of the Original Message check box if you want Windows Mail to position the insertion point at the bottom of a message that you’re forwarding or to which you’re replying. If you clear this check box, Windows Mail places the insertion point at the beginning of the message, where the recipient’s eye will find it first. Select the Insert Signature at the Bottom of a Reply check box if you want Windows Mail to add a signature to each reply. If you clear this check box, Windows Mail adds a signature only to each new message.

Windows Contacts

Select the Associate the Pictures in My Windows User Account and My Personal Contact check box if you want Windows to apply the pictures you choose for your Windows user account to your own contact item as well. If you’ve applied a photo of yourself to your user account, you may want to select this check box. If you’re using one of Windows’ standard pictures, leaving this check box clear is probably a better idea. Select the Reduce the File Size of Contacts by Linking to Pictures on My Computer check box if you want to keep down the size of contact files by linking pictures rather than including pictures in the contacts themselves.

Maintenance Options

To choose maintenance options for Windows Mail, click the Maintenance button on the Advanced page of the Options dialog box. Windows displays the Maintenance dialog box , which contains options for keeping Windows Mail running smoothly without silting up your hard disk. These are the options in the Maintenance dialog box:

Empty Messages from the “Deleted Items” Folder on Exit Select this check box to have Windows Mail empty all the deleted messages in your Deleted Items folder when you exit Windows Mail. By default, Windows Mail keeps the deleted messages until you empty the Deleted Items folder manually. Getting rid of the deleted items is better security, but it prevents you from recovering items you’ve deleted by accident in an earlier session.

Purge Deleted Messages When Leaving IMAP Folders Select this check box to have Windows Mail dispose of all messages you’ve marked as deleted when you close an IMAP folder. If your server is POP3 rather than IMAP, you don’t need to worry about this option.

Purge Newsgroup Messages in the Background Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to dispose of newsgroup messages automatically rather than you disposing of them manually. Use the next two check boxes to control which messages Windows Mail purges.

Delete Read Message Bodies in Newsgroups Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to delete all the message bodies of messages you’ve read when you quit Windows Mail. This option saves a lot of space, but it means that you’ll need to download a message again if you want to reread it.

Delete News Messages NN Days After Being Downloaded Select this check box and specify the number of days in the text box if you want Windows Mail to automatically delete messages after a set time. Clear this check box if you want to keep old messages for reference.

Compact the Database on Shutdown Every NN Runs Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to automatically compact its database of messages when you close Windows Mail after running it the specified number of times. The default number is 100, but if you use Windows Mail heavily and leave it running throughout each Windows session, reduce the number so as not to leave too long an interval between compactions.

Clean Up Now Click this button to display the Local File Clean Up dialog box, which provides actions for compacting and deleting messages. The section “Cleaning Up Messages” later in this article discusses these actions.

Store Folder Click this button to display the Store Location dialog box, which you can use for changing the folder in which your message store is located. The section “Moving Your Message Store” later in this article discusses this process.

Troubleshooting area If you’re having problems communicating with a mail or news server, you can select the Mail check box, the News check box, or the IMAP check box, to make Windows Mail log the commands used for that server. The log file may help cast light on the problem. The log files have the extension LOG and are named after the account they log. For example, the HTTP mail log is called HTTPMail.log, and the news log for the account news.pacbell.com would be called news.pacbell.com.log. You’ll find these files in the message store folder. To find out where the message store folder is, click the Store Folder button. Suppressing Junk E-mail Messages

Junk e-mail, or spam, is a sad fact of life for most people online. Windows Mail provides a strong suite of features to help you minimize the menace. To find these options, choose Tools Junk E-mail Options. Windows Mail displays the Junk E-mail Options dialog box. The following sections discuss the options contained on the five pages of this dialog box.

Setting Junk E-mail Options

The Options page of the Junk E-mail Options dialog box lets you set the level of protection you want from junk e-mail:

No Automatic Filtering. Mail from Blocked Senders Is Still Moved to the Junk E-mail Folder Select this option button only if you want to be sure that any message that might be legitimate no matter how remote the possibility ends up in your Inbox rather than in the Junk E-mail folder. If you receive a message from a sender whom you’ve blocked by name see the section “Creating a Blocked Senders List,” later in this article, Windows Mail puts it in the Junk E-mail folder.

Low: Move the Most Obvious Junk E-mail to the Junk E-mail Folder Select this option button to have Windows Mail filter out the most obvious junk mail and place it in your Junk E-mail folder. On this setting, your Inbox will still receive junk e-mail messages that Windows Mail can’t definitively condemn as junk. This setting is usually a good choice for normal mail use.

High: Most Junk E-mail Is Caught, but Some Regular Mail May Be Caught As Well Select this option button if you find that the Low setting is letting too much junk e-mail through to your Inbox. This setting makes Windows Mail take a more aggressive line, condemning any ambiguous messages as junk. Check your Junk E-mail folder frequently for non-junk messages that Windows Mail has wrongly identified as junk.

Safe List Only: Only Mail from People or Domains on Your Safe Senders List Will Be Delivered to Your Inbox Select this option button when you want to ensure no junk e-mail arrives in your Inbox. Windows Mail accepts only messages from senders you’ve designated safe see the next section and puts all other messages in the Junk E-mail folder.

Permanently Delete Suspected Junk E-mail instead of Moving It to the Junk E-mail Folder Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to delete suspected junk e-mail without consulting you. Even if you use the Low option button for filtering, deleting junk e-mail without review is seldom a good idea. Before using this setting, review your Junk E-mail folder for a while and make sure that the filtering level you’ve set is picking up only junk messages.

Creating a Safe Senders List

Windows Mail comes with filters for determining what’s junk mail and what’s not, but you can help it considerably by creating a Safe Senders list of people and domains whom you trust never to send junk and a Blocked Senders list of people and domains whose messages you always consider junk. To create the Safe Senders list, work on the Safe Senders page of the Junk E-mail Options dialog box . Take the following steps:

1. Click the Add button. Windows Mail displays the Add Address or Domain dialog box, as shown here.

2. In the text box, type either a full e-mail address for example, julia@example.com or just the domain for example, example.com. Use a full e-mail address whenever possible, as most domains have many users. For example, adding hotmail.com or yahoo.com to the Safe Senders list would be a mistake. Click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Add Address or Domain dialog box and adds the address or domain to the list box.

3. If you need to change an existing entry in the list, click it, click the Edit button, and then work in the Edit Address or Domain dialog box, which works just like the Add Address or Domain dialog box. If you need to remove an entry from the list, select it, and then click the Remove button.

4.If you want Windows Mail to treat your contacts as if they were on the Safe Senders list without your needing to add them explicitly, select the Also Trust E-mail from My Windows Contacts check box.

5. Select the Automatically Add People I E-mail to the Safe Senders List check box if you want Windows Mail to add such people to the Safe Senders list. Whether this is a good idea depends on whom you send messages to.

Creating a Blocked Senders List

The Blocked Senders list is the counterpart to the Safe Senders list - a list of people and domains whose messages you always want to treat as junk. Use the Add button, Edit button, and Remove button on the Blocked Senders page of the Junk E-mail Options dialog box to put together your list of addresses and domains.

Blocking Messages by Top-Level Domain or Language Encoding

The International page of the Junk E-mail Options dialog box lets you implement two more forms of blocking:

By Top-Level Domain If you find you receive only spam from certain top-level domains, you can block that entire domain. For example, you might choose to block the Nigeria domain or the Nauru domain.

Language Encoding If your Inbox suffers from spam written in a particular character set for example, Arabic or Korean in which you don’t receive worthwhile messages, you can block that language encoding.

To block by top-level domain, follow these steps:

1. Click the Blocked Top-Level Domain List button. Windows Mail displays the Blocked Top-Level Domain List, as shown here.

2. Select the check box for each domain you want to block. If you want to block all domains except a few, click the Select All button, and then clear the check box for each domain you want to allow. Normally, however, you’ll want to block only specific domains that seem to give you only spam.

3. Click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Blocked Top-Level Domain List dialog box, returning you to the International page of the Junk E-mail Options dialog box. To block by language encoding, follow these steps:

1. Click the Blocked Encoding List button. Windows Mail displays the Blocked Encodings List dialog box, as shown here.

2. Select the check box for each language encoding you want to block. Should you want to block all encodings except a few, click the Select All button, and then clear the check box for each encoding you want to allow you’ll probably want to allow Western European and US_ASCII. Most likely, you’ll need to block only particular encodings that are proving troublesome.

3. Click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Blocked Encodings List dialog box, returning you to the International page of the Junk E-mail Options dialog box.

Configuring Phishing Settings

Phishing is the practice of sending a fake e-mail message to try to learn personal information or financial information such as credit card or bank details or perpetrate some other kind of financial scam. For example:

• A message may claim there is a problem with your PayPal account and state that it has been frozen. To use it again, you should click a link in the message, which takes you to a site that appears to be the PayPal logon page - but is in fact a facsimile site designed to grab your logon name and password.

• A message may claim to be from your bank, saying that there’s a problem with your account. To sort out the problem, you should click a link in the message. What your browser shows is your bank’s real web page, but the logon area actually has a superimposed section into which you unwittingly enter your details - and share them with the fraudsters.

• A message claims your e-mail address has won an international online lottery. Just call this number to find out how to get your prize - and spend 10 minutes in voicemail hell at superpremium international rates before finding out that it’s bogus. The Phishing page of the Junk E-mail Options dialog box contains two options to help you avoid getting stung by phishing messages:

Protect My Inbox from Messages with Potential Phishing Links Select this check box to make Windows Mail watch for messages that may contain phishing links. Windows Mail warns you that the links may be dangerous.

Move Phishing E-mail to the Junk Mail Folder Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to move suspected phishing messages directly to the Junk Mail folder rather than placing them in your Inbox. This check box is available only when the previous check box is selected. Normally, it’s best to clear this check box and deal with suspected phishing messages in the Inbox, in case they’re actually genuine.

Receiving a Suspect Message

When Windows Mail downloads a message that it suspects of being junk or phishing, it displays the message box shown here to alert you to the message. If you don’t want Windows Mail to display this dialog box again, select the Please Do Not Show Me This Dialog Again check box. Click the Open Junk E-mail Folder button if you want to examine the message immediately, or click the Close button if you want to simply close the dialog box. You can also click the Junk E-mail Options button to open the Junk E-mail Options dialog box.

Reading and Sending E-mail

This section shows you how to read e-mail messages; how to send messages; how to reply to messages, and how to forward messages; and how to work with vCards virtual business cards and attachments.