Bogus Unread Mail Message (XP Home SP2)

[Lou Sander]

When I look at the "switch user screen," it shows that one of my users has "1 unread mail message." When I open that user and look at Outlook Express, there are no messages. Other than that, Outlook Express seems to work fine for that user. How do I get rid of what seems to be a bogus message? (I'm new to multiple users.)

[DocWatson]

That notification should go away once you check the mail for that account. It is strange that when you check it there is nothing there. Is this a new user account or the Guest account ??

[Lou Sander]

It's a user account, "Barbara Sander." Her email address is BSander153@verizon.net. If she is logged off and I send her two new email messages, when I look at the welcome screen it still shows one unread message. When I log her on and open Outlook Express, the two messages are there and can be read.

So it looks like what's happening is that XP Home is reporting 1 unread message, regardless of how many messages are there.

She will very rarely use Outlook Express, since she's oriented to AOL. But I want the Outlook Express capability to be there if I need it. I would to whatever it takes to get rid of the bogus message, including removing and reinstalling accounts, software, etc.

Sending email works fine, but it might be worth mentioning my unusual setup. We have three AOL email addresses that we use regularly, and we almost never use our verizon.net accounts. So for sending, I set up three "accounts" in Outlook Express, one for each of the three AOL addresses. I set them up so that email sent from Outlook Express appears to have been sent from one of the AOL accounts. This works great on my own system, which uses XP Professional. I keep thinking that maybe the difference between Home and Pro is at the root of this problem, or that I've made a typo somewhere in setting up one of her accounts in Home. (It's on a notebook with a clunky keyboard that isn't easy to type on.)

[DocWatson]

<center>

<hr>I set them up so that email sent from Outlook Express appears to have been sent from one of the AOL accounts<hr>

</center>Could you explain how you did this ?? It may have something to do with this issue.

<img src=/S/whisper.gif border=0 alt=whisper width=29 height=17> <small> You might also want to edit out the personal information in your last post. Not always a good idea to post personal info on a public board.<small> <img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>

[JoeP517]

See Overview of the mail notification display on the Windows XP Welcome screen for more information. Also, see Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP #100 for registry file to disable and restore the count on the Welcome Screen.

Joe

[Lou Sander]

I set up more than one account in Outlook Express. When that is accomplished and I create mail, the "From" box has a downward pointing arrow to its right. When I click it, a list drops down. The list shows the email addresses I've set up for each account. When I send from a given email address, the recipient sees that email address (even though it might be an AOL address and I'm sending the email from Outlook Express). Since my main email accounts are on AOL, this is very handy when, for example, I'm surfing from Internet Explorer and I find somebody I want to send an email to. I just send it from Outlook Express, but set the "From" to whichever of my AOL email addresses I want to receive the reply at.

Here are some screen shots from Outlook Express. They show the properties after the fact, but they're pretty close to what I enter when setting up the account.

[Lou Sander]

I found the problem. One of the links in this thread said that if you click the "unread email" notification, you'll see where it's coming from. I did, and I did, and everything is OK now. Thanks to all for their help.

[DocWatson]

That would have been my next suggestion. I felt that you had set the accounts up this way but wanted to be sure before proceeding.

Glad you found your answer. <img src=/S/thumbup.gif border=0 alt=thumbup width=15 height=15>

[Lou Sander]

Is there any simple way of telling Outlook Express NOT to check for incoming mail at the AOL addresses? That would be a lot more convenient.

[DocWatson]

Not that I'm aware of. <img src=/S/shrug.gif border=0 alt=shrug width=39 height=15>

[Lou Sander]

My problem is fixed. I used the very simple method outlined in the "Overview of..." page linked to in the above message from joeperez.

Thanks for the help, folks. (I always like to post info about how the problem was solved, as it usually is when I ask in Woody's Lounge.)

[JoeP517]

Glad you got it worked out <img src=/S/clapping.gif border=0 alt=clapping width=19 height=23>. Thanks for posting back. That is always good and may save another Lounger later.

Joe