Outlook New Mail Notification Icon Hides

It’s pretty old question but any way…perhaps this will help those who do not like pop-up message boxes. The rule wizard has an action “start application”. I have written a simple app which shows little envelope icon in the tray. When you double click on the icon it brings up Outlook window like original Outlook icon does (and no pop-up message boxes). The app and source code are uploaded on github, here.

You can download source code and compile the app by yourself or you can just download executable from bin folder as given here.

Point start application action to the app and it will show little envelope icon in the tray when rule is triggered.

Perhaps this will help those who do not like pop-up message boxes.

How do I disable the New Mail Desktop Alert for specific accounts?

There is not a direct setting for this in Outlook, but you can achieve this by disabling the generic option to display the New Mail Desktop Alert and then create a rule to display it again when mail arrives via your specified account(s).

Disabling New Mail Desktop Alert

As said, the first step of the process is to disable the generic option to always display the New Mail Desktop Alert.

• Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007

  Tools-> Options…-> button: E-mail Options…-> button: Advanced E-mail Options…-> option: Display a New Mail Desktop Alert

• Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013

  File-> Options-> Mail-> section: Message arrival-> option: Display a Desktop Alert

• Uncheck Display a Desktop Alert

Creating a New Mail Desktop Alert rule for specific accounts

The next step is to create a rule to display the New Mail Desktop Alert again but only for the accounts that you select.

The approach is slightly different for when you want to disable alerts for only 1 account or multiple.

Disable alert for 1 specific account

When you have multiple accounts configured and only want to disable the alerts for 1 specific account, then you need to create the following rule:

1. Open the Rules and Alerts dialog;

   • Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007

     Tools-> Rules and Alerts… (press OK if you get an HTTP warning)

   • Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013

     File-> button: Manage Rules & Alerts

2. When you see the “Apply changes to this folder” drop down list at the top, make sure that the account which you want to exclude is selected here.

   

   3. Button New Rule…
   4. Select “Start from a blank rule” and verify that “Check messages when they arrive” or “Apply rule on message I receive” is selected.
   5. Press Next to go to the Conditions screen.
   6. Verify that no condition is selected and press Next.
   7. A warning will pop-up stating that this rule will apply to all messages. Press “Yes” to indicate that that is correct.
   8. Select the action “display a Desktop Alert”.
   9. Press Next.
   10. Select: except through the specified account
   11. At the bottom, click on “specified” and then select the account for which you want to see the alert.
   12. Press Finish to complete the rule.

The entire rule will now read as follows:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
on this computer only
display a Desktop Alert
except through the <account name> account

For the other email accounts which still need alerts:

• Repeat steps 1 to 12 except for 10 and 11 When you had the “Apply changes to this folder” drop down list as mentioned in step 2, you’ll need to repeat the above steps for all the other accounts listed but you can then skip step 10 and 11.

  If you do not do this, you won’t see alerts for these accounts.

Source Disable New Mail Desktop Alert for specific accounts

How do I show/hide the new mail envelope?

Outlook 2010

When you are using Outlook 2010 on Windows 7, then the new mail envelope will no longer be displayed in the Notification Area.

Instead, the icon of Outlook on the Taskbar will actually change to inform you about a new message.

Unfortunately, when you’ve set your Taskbar in Windows 7 to use small icons, you will not get an envelope notification at all.

In that case you could consider reconfiguring the New Mail Desktop Alert to be displayed as a permanent notification.

Note 1:

The new mail envelope is only being displayed for messages delivered to the (default) Inbox. For additional accounts you can use a New Mail Desktop Alert.

Note 2:

The option to show/hide the new mail envelope for Outlook can be found in;

• Outlook 2007 and previous

  Tools-> Options…-> tab Preferences-> button E-mail Options…-> button Advanced E-mail Options…-> option: Show an envelope in the notification area

• Outlook 2010

  File-> section Options-> section Mail-> option group Message arrival-> option: Show an envelope in the taskbar

Source New mail envelope and Windows 7