Microsoft Outlook® includes a set of built-in filters that identify junk e-mail, such as commercial bulk e-mail and e-mail suspected of having adult content, and enable you to highlight the message or move it to a folder for later review and disposal.

Use the Junk E-Mail feature without missing important e-mail by following a few simple steps:

 

1. Make sure that the Junk Mail feature has been turned on.
2. On the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard, and then select Exception List.
3. In the Rule description box, click Exception List.

Enter the e-mail addresses you do not want screened by the Outlook Junk E-mail filters. You can also add part of an e-mail address to the exception list. For example, if you add the phrase host.domain.com, no e-mail address containing host.domain.com will be filtered out. Thus, any e-mail sent to you by user@host.domain.com, regardless of its subject, would not be flagged as junk e-mail.

The criteria used by the built-in filters are documented in a file called filters.txt, which is installed by default in <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office. The version of this file that is included in Outlook is outdated. The Microsoft Junk E-Mail Filter Readme, which contains an updated version of filters.txt, correctly describes the operation of the built-in filters.

 

Note The default setting of the Junk E-mail feature changes the color of suspected junk e-mail messages; it does not move the messages to a separate folder. Setting your junk e-mail color to gray will make questionable messages appear faded but still visible enough to read, ensuring that important mail will not be accidentally overlooked.