A How To Introduction For Windows Vista Email

Windows Vista mail is now called Windows Mail. In Windows XP it was called Outlook Express. The new version in Windows Vista is basically the same program with some safety features and improvements added.

I prefer to use the Vista mail program over an online mail program as I do not need to access my mail from any other locations besides my home.

Setting up Windows Mail is a little more involved, but the extra time is worth it. The fact that Vista Mail runs locally in Windows Vista allows it to run faster and with more features than online programs.

The easiest way to set up Windows Mail is to call your internet provider; tell the tech support person that you have Windows Vista and you want to set up Windows Mail, they will quickly instruct you how to enter the information required to get it configured.

Once you have Windows Mail working there are a few things to know about it to make it easier to use. The first one is how to enter or manage Contacts. On the Toolbar you will see four icons as shown in (Fig. 1). Select the left most icon.

Fig. 1 (see attached picture for figure 1)

If you cannot find these four icons then right click on the Menubar and select Toolbar.

A new feature in Windows Mail is the junk mail filter. The default setting is to filter junk mail so be careful to look in the new folder called Junk E-mail where some of your important mail may be placed. I turned off this function as I get very little junk mail and prefer to not look in two places for my mail. To turn off junk mail filtering, follow these steps:

1) Select Tools from the Menubar

2) Select Junk E-mail Options...

3) Select No Automatic Filtering.

Even though Vista has more safeguards against virus infections, I like to warn people regarding the dangers of attachments. Windows Mail will warn you about potentially harmful attachments but most new computer users may not understand the potentially dangerous nature of some attachments.

The problem is new users might not pay attention to the warnings and bypass them. So if you open an attachment pay particular attention to all warning messages that Windows Mail and Windows Vista might display. I suggest to users that they do not open attachments unless they know who sent it and know the contents ahead of time.

I hope these tips will make your new Windows Vista computer experience a more pleasurable one.