Windows XP Hacks, 2nd Edition

Chapter 6. Email

Hacks 59-64

If you’re like a lot of people, email is a big part of your life. For many, it’s replaced the telephone for keeping in touch with friends and family—and, of course, it’s absolutely vital for work as well.

But the odds are you’re not getting the most out of your email. You might be bedeviled by spam, you might be blocked from opening specific files sent to you via email, and you might not know how to back up your mail programs. In this chapter, you’ll find hacks for all that and more, including great Registry hacks for getting the most out of Outlook and Outlook Express, as well as Outlook alternatives. And you’ll find out how to hack Google’s Gmail email service by doing things such as using it as a virtual hard drive.

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.

People who have certain body parts they’d like enlarged, who expect Nigerian strangers to shower several million dollars upon them, who favor spending boatloads of money for semiworthless goods, and who enjoy vile, pornographic come-ons littering their email box love spam.

Everyone else, like you and I, hate 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 such an effective blocking rate, you’ll need to use downloadable software; the antispam features built into Outlook ...