Getting Email to Play Nicely with Windows
Email and Windows XP don't always play well together. For example, XP often insists on needlessly launching Windows Messenger whenever you open Outlook. The following hints are designed to stop this incessant quarreling and keep you emailing smoothly.
Killing the "Unread Messages" Notice
Your Windows welcome screen tells you the number of unread messages you have in your email box, with one teeny-weeny caveat: It's usually wrong (Figure 8-16). No one, including Microsoft, seems to know why this happens. But there's no reason you need to keep seeing this useless information.
Figure 8-16. The number of messages announced by your welcome screen can be waaaay off.
Figure 8-17. TweakUI lets you stop XP from telling you on the Windows welcome screen how many unread email messages you have. The number is invariably inaccurate, so you might as well turn it off.
To make this change, you need to download and install a program called TweakUI, available for free at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp. (For more about TweakUI, see Section 2.1.1).
Once you've installed the software, choose Start→ All Programs→ Power Toys for Windows XP→ TweakUI for Windows XP. Choose Logon→ Unread Mail, and in the screen that appears (Figure 8-17), turn ...
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