Newsletter Archives

PC Tips & Tricks
October, 2007

In this edition:
The How To & Why of Whitelisting
Download a Blocked Object
Outlook Startup Folder

The How To & Why of Whitelisting

If you've already created a whitelist so that junk mail ends up in your junk folder and not your inbox, congrats. If not, you can learn how to create a whitelist with the most popular email programs - especially those provided online like Hotmail, by visiting our whitelist page.

Outlook 2003 doesn't actually use the terms "whitelist" or "blacklist". They use "safe senders list" and "blocked senders list".

You can quickly set up and modify these two lists while reading your emails. To do so, let's suppose you find some junk mail (more viagra, anyone?) in your inbox. Open the email and in the file menu, click on Actions > Junk E-mail and choose "Add Sender to Blocked Senders List". This will add that email address to your blacklist and any further emails that get sent from that email address will go to your Junk E-mail folder.

It's a good idea to check your Junk E-mail folder every now and again as emails that aren't actually spam could end up in there. When you find an email in your Junk folder that you don't actually want considered spam, open the email and in the file menu, click Actions > Junk E-mail and choose either "Add Sender to Safe Senders List" or "Add Sender's Domain to Safe Senders List". What's the difference? The first will add the whole email address (i.e. joe.blogs@domain.com) so that any emails from that single email address will make it to your inbox. The second option will add the last part, the domain (i.e. @domain.com) into your whitelist so that any emails from anyone at that domain (i.e. joe.blogs@domain.com, sue.blogs@domain.com or someone.else@domain.com) will make it to your inbox.

Sadly, spam is constantly on the increase and if you find the number of emails in your inbox getting overwhelming, it's likely time to set up your white and blacklists to have your email program help save you time.

Downloading a Blocked Object
This tip is at the request of a reader who was getting an "Object Blocked" error message when trying to download AVG.

This is caused when you try to download something which one of your programs (usually the browser but it could also be your firewall) thinks is a risk to your computer's security. Executable files (i.e. files that are run) can be risky unless you are downloading them from a trustworthy publisher.

If this happens within Internet Explorer, you will see an information bar at the top of the visible page with options you can choose from, including how to unblock the download.

If you are using Firefox, it's recommended that you clear the browser's cache by going to Tools > Options> Advanced > Network / Cache > Clear Now in Firefox v2 or Tools > Options > Privacy > Cache > Clear in previous versions.

If the message is being caused by a firewall like ZoneAlarm or CA Firewall, you can read more by clicking here.

Outlook Startup Folder
Going back to Outlook, you may not like Outlook starting at the Outlook Today folder.

You may only use Outlook for emails, so you want it to go straight to your Inbox when it starts. Or maybe, you use its calendar to help organise your busy days, so you want it to show the Calendar when it opens.

After you've decided what you would like Outlook 2003 to show when it starts, go to Tools > Options > Other and then click the Advanced Options button. Click the Browse button to the right of the text, "Startup in this folder:" to select the folder you wish to see first when you start Outlook.

If you're using an older version of Outlook, you'll find the same option near the bottom of the General tab in the Options under Tools.

Back