It Tips – May 2013

It Tips – May 2013

I want to offer my sincerest apologies for not posting an IT Tip last month. Everyone must be heartbroken. I assume full responsibility for the April IT Tip drought of 2013 and I hope that I can redeem myself.

What’s Inside:

Tech Section

·         Junk E-mail Folder

·         Back to Basics: What is a “proper” shutdown?

Kudos

·         Thanks Abby!


 

Junk E-mail Folder
We all have one.

No, I’m not talking about your Star Wars figurine collection. I’m talking about your Junk E-mail folder in Outlook.

X-Wing Pilot Luke and Jedi Luke? Nice.

Nestled beneath your Outlook folders is a special folder whose purpose is simply divine.

The ‘Junk E-mail’ folder works to filter your share of the billions of spam messages delivered each day. It takes one for the team and traps those seedy spam messages before they even reach your Inbox. It is a vigilant ally.

Ok… You have an odd affinity for Outlook folders, why do I care?

I’ll tell you why: false positives.

Despite being a diligent worker, the Junk E-mail filter can sometimes trap legitimate messages. When I say, “legitimate”, I of course mean messages that are not spam. It will be on those rare occasions that the Junk-Email filter quickly changes from friend to foe.

Luckily, there is a solution: check the folder! Many are blissfully unaware of its presence and it’s very important to regularly check the junk email folder.

You can check the folder just like any other Outlook folder by clicking it:

You can see a false-positive from Mery's
personal email address in my Junk E-mail folder.

 

If the Junk E-mail folder is so great why does it trap legitimate messages?

There are many factors that can make a message look like spam. Many times, legitimate email messages are inadvertently structured like spam.

Certain words, colors or even email addresses can erroneously be identified as spam.  Subsequently, the message will be trapped by the Junk E-mail filter. It is because of this anomaly, that checking the Junk E-mail folder regularly is imperative. 

What can I do if email from a particular person keeps getting trapped?

I thought you’d never ask!

You may notice legitimate email from a certain person is always ending up in the Junk E-mail folder. As I mentioned earlier, the cause could be one of a multitude of factors. Something as simple as a strange word in their email address could make them look like a spammer.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to stop Outlook from trapping messages sent by someone you trust. This is where the ‘Safe Senders List’ comes in to play.

Outlook has a feature for bypassing the Junk E-mail filter called ‘Safe Senders’. Adding people to this list will always allow their messages to come through. Simply follow these steps:

Click Actions -> Junk E-mail -> Junk E-mail Options

Click the ‘Safe Senders’ tab.

Now you can click the ‘Add’ button, enter the email address of the person you wish to allow, and click OK.

The email address you added should now appear in the list. Click OK and you’re done!

Note: you may have noticed the ‘Also trust e-mail from my Contacts’ checkbox. This is on by default and does exactly what it says. It will ensure Outlook never traps messages from people listed in your contacts.

Don’t you guys filter junk for us already? Are you just getting lazy?

Jeez, don’t hurt my feelings. I’m doing my best. Actually, we do have a spam filter on the server-side that traps most of the junk before it even reaches your Outlook.

In fact, one week in March, our server spam filter trapped 10,980 spam messages. To put that into perspective, there were 28,316 total messages received in that same period. That means nearly 40% of the email our server received that week was spam.

Even with all the work our server-side spam filter does, no single filter can trap everything. Your Outlook spam filter is a nice supplement; just be aware of the false positives.

What is a “proper” shutdown?

In life, there are always correct and incorrect ways to accomplish tasks. For example: when you want to shut off your car, you’ll typically stop, put it in park and then turn off the ignition. If you tried to skip the preliminary steps, you’d end up with some road rash and a damaged car.

Your computer also performs some preliminary steps during a proper shutdown to avoid causing damage.

Let’s be clear, I’m not saying an improper computer shutdown is the same as leaping from a moving car. I’m just implying it…

In all seriousness, it is important to shut your computer down properly. Not doing so can result in hard drive failure and lost data.

Your analogy is terrible but please continue: How does one perform a “proper shutdown”?

It’s really quite easy. Click the Start button (bottom left) and choose shutdown.

Then let your computer run through its shutdown process and power off by itself. That’s all there is to it.

Also note: NEVER press the power button if you see “Configuring Windows Updates” during a shutdown. 
 

Kudos

Our own Abby Burke recommended the Junk E-Mail tip. Thank you Abby!

Have a great month, everyone!

-Keith

Please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you have a something that you think will make a good tip. You’ll get credit on the blog for your contribution and I might give you a high-five!