Windows XP Hacks

Slam That Spam

You don’t have to be bedeviled by unwanted mail. Use this hack to kill as much as 90% (or much more, in my case) of your spam.

If you have certain body parts that you’d like enlarged, expect Nigerian strangers to shower several million dollars upon you, favor spending boatloads of money for semiworthless goods, and enjoy vile, pornographic come-ons littering your email box, then you’re a spam lover.

Everyone else, like you and me, hates the stuff.

While there’s no foolproof way of stopping all the spam that makes its way into your mailbox, I’ve found ways to block at least 90% of what I don’t want headed my way. To get that effective a blocking rate, you’ll need to use downloadable software; the antispam features built into Outlook and Outlook Express simply don’t cut it. (However, if you’re bent on trying to use Outlook and Outlook Express’s antispam features, head to the end of this hack to learn how.)

There are two primary kinds of software you can use to block spam. One type sits between your email program and the mail servers where you pick up your email. It checks your mail, marks email that it considers spam, and then (depending on the program) lets you handle that spam in a variety of ways, such as automatically deleting it, letting you manually delete it, or marking it in a way that will alert your normal email program that it’s spam—and letting the email program filter or kill the spam. In all cases, you’ll be able to read the messages before they’re deleted, ...