The following solution to a problem plaguing many users when opening email with attachments comes from Keith Jaslow.

Keith writes:

"I've been wrestling with some bad behavior in Outlook related to my inbox. If I selected an e-mail that had an attachment, Outlook would basically freeze for 30-seconds or so, before displaying the message. After searching everywhere I could think of on the Internet, I had found two suggestions:

1. Disable the link to Instant Messenger
2. Uncheck the box for the dialog to always ask whether to open/save the attachments

Neither of these solutions did anything for me. I searched on Microsoft's website and saw a knowledgebase article about Alternative Input, and how an update was supposed to improve the processing of e-mails with attachments. Unfortunately, a scan of my Office installation said that no updates were needed.

Finally, I found a knowledgebase article explaining that Office installs Speech and Handwriting Recognition by default. The following knowledgebase article explains how to turn these off, and solved my problem. E-mails with attachments are now just as zippy as other e-mails. Here's a link to the article that helped me. Please help spread the word! http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823586&Product=off2003"  

Thanks for sharing, Keith.

Last week I told you about the SQL filter available for use with custom views. There is another filter option available that not only works with Views, but also in Search folders, Advanced Find, and Automatic formatting. It's called Query Builder and it's simple to enable and easy to use. To enable it, add the appropriate key called QueryBuilder to your registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\QueryBuilder

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\QueryBuilder

To use it, select the QueryBuilder tab from the Filter dialog and select or enter the criteria. After adding two or more conditions, select a group and choose the AND or OR operator from the logical group menu. Create nested conditions by moving the criteria up or down. For example, QueryBuilder allows you to create one filter that looks for messages received today from Mary OR for messages received today which request a read receipt. Using the Advanced filter you needed two separate filter rules, one for each condition. QueryBuilder needs just one and looks like this:

- AND

         messages received today

- OR

         from Mary

         request a read receipt

You're probably wondering why QueryBuilder remains largely unknown when the ability to create OR filters is often requested. Apparently QueryBuilder can cause instability in Outlook. Your mileage may vary, but I've used it off and on since Outlook 2002 without a problem and it's worth trying if you need to create filters using OR.

For more information on QueryBuilder, see KB307922.
Note that QueryBuilder is in Outlook 2002/2003 only.

How many addresses can the safe and blocked lists hold? Approximately 2000 total. This is because the total size of all lists combined cannot exceed 512K. Once the 512K limit is reached, Outlook alerts you and additional addresses aren't saved until you remove some from the list.

For example, if you have 1800 addresses on the safe list, you can only block approximately 200 addresses. If the addresses are long, your list will hold fewer addresses; if they're short, you'll be able to have more.

Importing a list of blocked addresses from an older version of Outlook is not recommended, in part because these lists often are larger than 512K and Outlook crashes when trying to import them, but also because spammers change addresses so often that lists are outdated within a few months.

Microsoft imposed the limit to improve performance, as the lists are stored as a hidden property in the Inbox and duplicated to the local registry. Each time the users synchronize with the Exchange mailbox store, the lists are downloaded. The limit can be adjusted on Exchange server, by adding a new registry key value to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem\

Add a new DWORD value of Type Max Extended Rule Size and edit the Value Data, entering the maximum size (in bytes) you want to allow.

If Outlook's Junk email filter doesn't offer enough options, misses too much spam, or you need better Safe and Blocked lists, try one of the many excellent third party anti-spam filters available.

For a list of third party tools, visit http://www.slipstick.com/rules/junkmail.htm#tools

For Exchange server junk mail filtering tools, visit http://www.slipstick.com/addins/content_control.htm 

Write a short note describing why you like the utility and send it to mailto:favoritetools@slipstick.com?subject=My%20favorite%20Outlook%20or%20Exchange%20tool  and I may feature it on the Utility page at http://slipstick.com/addins/index.htm.

Slipstick.com's Ratings Raffle has a few more weeks left, if you haven't voted yet, do so now. Choose a category and vote for your favorite utilities in the category to be entered into the drawing to win a book. There will be five winners a week until the prize box is empty.

During the contest, you're limited to one entry person and can only vote in one utility category, but you can vote for as many of your favorite utilities in that category as you want. When the prizes are gone later this summer, you'll be able to come back and rate the utilities in the other categories.

Please only vote for (or against) products you've tried. Please don't vote against products in an attempt to alter the Top 10 ratings. When blatant voting fraud occurs (as it did recently) I will refer to the IIS logs to determine the number of fraudulent votes and remove them.

For a list of prizes, winners, and rules, see http://www.slipstick.com/books/contest.htm. If your name is listed and you didn't receive notification, contact me at the address listed on the winners page.

Winners for weeks 7 and 8 are Michael Kridel Boca Raton; Karen Christian California; Luizio Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Dave Zamzow Fort Collins; Jim McNulty Providence; C. Piratzky Atlanta; Rob Sargent Ottawa; Mike Nelson Midwest, USA; Randy Ochmann San Diego; Steve Smith Oregon; and Dag Naestvold Norway.

Vote for your favorite utilities at http://www.slipstick.com/contest/default.aspx.