How to Read Unread Mails in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010

I am sharing a great feature of MS Outlook to read all the unread emails from all folder at one place. Actually this feature I like very much because it really help me to save my time to search all unread mails.

I am receiving more than two hundred emails in my Outlook emails. Emails are coming to my inbox from various person and places so I have created a rule to filter these emails as per the name and importance. In short when I have to read all these emails in limited amount of time then I prefer to go for only important emails to reply, rest unread emails I read by search folder option which really help me to save my time.

I am sharing how you can also search all unread mails and read it and you customize it according to your choice.

Here are the simple steps to use and create this feature:
1.    Open Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

• In Outlook 2007: Go File-> New-> Search Folder…
• Outlook 2010:  Tab Folder-> button New Search Folder. You will see the below window on  Outlook

2.    Scroll to the bottom of the New Search Folder dialog and choose;
Custom-> Create a custom Search Folder
3.    Press button "Choose…"
4.    Name: Today’s Unread Mail
5.    Press button "Criteria…"
6.    On the Messages tab set the following condition
Time: received today
7.    On the More Choices tab set the following condition
Only items that are: unread
8.    Press OK
9.    Press button "Browse…"
10.  Deselect the option "Outlook Today" and select the following folders;
Drafts, Inbox, Outbox
11.  Verify that the option "Search in subfolders" is enabled
12.  Press OK to close the open dialog

You can also place the Today’s Unread Mail folder on the top as Favorite Folders of the list and have configured Outlook to startup in that folder. 

This way you can easily manage all your mail you’ve received in a day even when you have rules configured which filter them to different folders. I hope you will take the benefit of this feature too and you can save time as well.

How to Start Outlook in Safe Mode

Do you know how to run Outlook in safe mode? If you are not aware then read my post so that you can open Outlook in safe mode.

To start Outlook from the Run command with the safe switch and check you need to do the following:

Aside from using the Run command, there are also other ways to start Outlook in Safe Mode

Hold CTRL
When you hold he CTRL button on your keyboard when clicking the Outlook shortcut on your Desktop, Quick Launch toolbar or Start Menu, Outlook will detect this and asks you if you want to start Outlook in Safe Mode. If you are using Windows XP or Windows 7, then there is a Search box in the Start Menu. Here type; outlook.exe /safe

Starting Outlook in Safe Mode via the Start Menu in Windows XP,
Create a shortcut
You can also create a new shortcut to outlook.exe and add the /safe switch;
First, determine the location of outlook.exe on your system. In general you’ll find it under;
    32-bit version of Windows
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office <version number>
    64-bit version of Windows
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office <version number>

If you can’t find it, do a search for outlook.exe or use OutlookTools (free) instead.

Once you’ve found outlook.exe we create a shortcut to it with the /safe switch to prevent Outlook from opening an extra window each time you click the shortcut or use your keyboard shortcut.

Right click on an empty space on your Desktop and choose New-> Shortcut
Type the path to outlook.exe between quotes or browse to its location via the Browse… button
Type a space behind that and /safe
The entire line should now look like this (example is for Outlook 2007 on a 32-bit Windows);
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /safe

Click Next

Name your shortcut for instance: Outlook Safe Mode
Click Finish

Imp Point 1: To further troubleshoot Outlook startup issues see this guide.
Imp Point 2: If you are in a corporate environment, you might find that other troubleshooting measures are also restricted to you. In these cases it is usually best to contact your IT-department and let them take care of it instead.