I'm using Outlook 2010, but I suspect my question applies to all versions. I'm part of some distribution lists that send an email to me every ~10 minutes. I want to receive those emails, but treat them as low priority – so I have a custom Outlook rule that places them in a subfolder of my Inbox and "clears the Message Flag". (that's the little envelope icon in the system tray that tells you that new mail has arrived)
I get "regular" mail that's not processed by any rules, so it winds up in my Inbox. The envelope icon appears for those situations, so that's good.
The problem is, once I get one of my "junk" emails – it clears the envelope icon out of the system tray and I'm unaware that new mail has arrived.
I ideally want any "regular mail" to show the envelope icon and I want my "junk mail" to never trigger the envelope icon to display.
How can I do that?
Best Answer
I have been doing this since Outlook 2000, you do not need to clear the flag.
I create a new rule that moves these distribution list messages to a folder under the inbox (I have a folder for each list). I also have other similar rules for specific groups of users (say everyone from companyabc.com).
When I receive mail for these lists, the message goes into the folder and I do not get the message flag. If mail comes directly into my inbox I get the flag and it does not remove itself until I read the message.
The distribution list folders could fill up with a billion messages, it doesn't change the notification.
Detailed rule creation instructions (Outlook 2010):