Windows Live Mail - Message Rules (News)

[Mr. Kite]

Not sure if this is the right place but heyho...

I've set up some message rules amongst which are;
Rule 1 - Highlight my own posts (in red)
Rule 2 - Delete old messages after 3 days.

My questions; Why do some messages work automatically, Rule 1 above, and
some have to be manually applied, Rule 2 above?

Why is there a 'Move up/down' option when creating rules?
Is the order of the rules being applied anything to do with 'Rule' 2 not
working automatically?

Thanks for any help.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Mr. Kite.

Not sure if this is the right place but heyho...

The best place for questions about Windows Live Mail is:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop

(Note that, although the word "desktop" was dropped from the name of the
program more than two years ago, Usenet rules make it impractical to delete
it from the name of that newsgroup.)

When you post there, please mention your WLMail build (14.0.8064.0206) and
your exact Windows version (Vista Ultimate x64 SP2). That information never
hurts and it often is significant in trying to help you solve your problem
or answer your question.

Message Rules should almost always include the final Action: Stop
processing more rules. It's easy to overlook because we have to scroll down
a couple of pages in Actions to even see the option. But it makes a big
difference in the behavior of many Rules. And, yes, the order in which they
are applied can make a big difference, too. If your first rule applies to
All Messages and says to Delete, then your second rule will never see any
messages. :>(

As to your News Rule 2, have you tried the other approach? Tools | Options
| Advanced | Maintenance. On that tab, there are a few lines that can be
confusing, but if you first click "Purge newsgroup messages in the
background", you can then check "Delete news messages _3_ days after being
downloaded". Note that this is days after you've downloaded them; if you
download today (June 15) a message that was posted in March, it will be
deleted on or about June 18. After your first time limit has expired, you
should not see older messages anymore. (So if there are a few special posts
that you'd like to keep permanently, create a Storage Folder for "Saved
Posts" or some other name of your choice. Then before your time limit is
up, right-click that post and choose Copy to folder...)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

 

[DanS]

your second rule will never see any messages. :>(

As to your News Rule 2, have you tried the other approach? Tools |
Options
| Advanced | Maintenance. On that tab, there are a few lines that can
| be
confusing, but if you first click "Purge newsgroup messages in the
background", you can then check "Delete news messages _3_ days after
being downloaded". Note that this is days after you've downloaded
them; if you download today (June 15) a message that was posted in
March, it will be deleted on or about June 18. After your first time
limit has expired, you should not see older messages anymore. (So if
there are a few special posts that you'd like to keep permanently,
create a Storage Folder for "Saved Posts" or some other name of your
choice. Then before your time limit is up, right-click that post and
choose Copy to folder...)

So, if this is set to 3 days after d/l'g, what happens if you d/l messages
on Monday...then don't get back to it until Saturday, 5 days later ? Will
all messages from Monday be automatically deleted ?

3 days doesn't sound like enough time to me.

 

[Mr. Kite]

So, if this is set to 3 days after d/l'g, what happens if you d/l messages
on Monday...then don't get back to it until Saturday, 5 days later ? Will
all messages from Monday be automatically deleted ?

3 days doesn't sound like enough time to me.

3 days was just my own preference.
I check usenet daily, so I allow the second day for anything I missed and a
third as back up so, 3 days suits me fine.

Less frequent checkers should adjust accordingly.

FWIW, I just tried to find the max on this parameter...I gave up when at
10000 days and got bored!
27.39 years should be long enough for even the slowest readers or less
frequent users <g>

 

[Tom Allen]

Not sure if this is the right place but heyho...

I've set up some message rules amongst which are;
Rule 1 - Highlight my own posts (in red)
Rule 2 - Delete old messages after 3 days.

My questions; Why do some messages work automatically, Rule 1 above,
and some have to be manually applied, Rule 2 above?

I think the clue is in the first line of the rules - 'Apply this rule
after the message arrives' which seems to mean 'when the message
arrives'. Thus a message received at one particular time may have been
sent less than N days previously (depending on N and how often you
fetch) and is only checked once, on arrival. The same rule run as
'Apply now' will however catch any N day old messages. I think !

Tom

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Mr. Kite.

27.39 years should be long enough for even the slowest readers or less
frequent users <g>

If not, just leave the box unchecked and WLM will keep them indefinitely.
;<}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

 

[Mr. Kite]

Hi, Mr. Kite.


If not, just leave the box unchecked and WLM will keep them indefinitely.
;<}

Would like to thank you for your original, prompt reply to my questions.

A couple of points; I did check the newsgroup you mentioned but it seemed
deserted.

I do have the 'auto-delete' feature set to 3 days but it seems this doesn't
always seem to apply itself.
There some posts dated 7 days ago BUT I'm not sure when they were actually
downloaded.
(I often purge my newsbase completely, manually, on a per group basis -
sometimes to clear out, sometimes to reset headers.
So, I suspect you're right.... these 7 day posts I'm seeing were only
downloaded 2/3 days ago.

Maybe if I stopped being so paranoid about the size of my message d'base,
the system would run itself and keep it to a consistent level for me! :+/
I must stop interfering!

Thanks again. A help.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Mr. Kite.

Please try again. Don't try to type the long URL, just click here:

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop

That newsgroup is definitely NOT deserted! I've been reading and posting
there much of this morning. WLM tells me there are 5,118 messages there,
282 Unread (by me). I see messages dated as far back as March 26, 2009,
because I've UNchecked the box to purge news messages, so they stay in my
Message Store until Microsoft deletes them from their server. (I'm a
packrat - and I often want to look back to conversations from weeks or
months ago, because the same or similar questions pop up here again and
again and they often can be answered without "reinventing the wheel". My
Message Store is well over 2 GB - and counting.)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

 

[Mr. Kite]

Hi, Mr. Kite.

Please try again. Don't try to type the long URL, just click here:

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop

That newsgroup is definitely NOT deserted! I've been reading and posting
there much of this morning. WLM tells me there are 5,118 messages there,
282 Unread (by me). I see messages dated as far back as March 26, 2009,
because I've UNchecked the box to purge news messages, so they stay in my
Message Store until Microsoft deletes them from their server. (I'm a
packrat - and I often want to look back to conversations from weeks or
months ago, because the same or similar questions pop up here again and
again and they often can be answered without "reinventing the wheel". My
Message Store is well over 2 GB - and counting.)

Thanks for the link.
I was trying to access it through my ISP's news server - they quite happily
listed it as available, just don't appear to take the feed!
I'm now hooked up to Microsoft Communities and will direct any further WLM
queries to the more apt group as you have suggested.

Interesting reading and I'll be exploring other groups on this invaluable
resource.

Thanks again.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Mr. Kite.

It's good to see you here, using WLM build 14.0.8064.0206. ;<)

Your ISP is probably using one of the thousands of news servers that simply
"slurp" messages from the Microsoft news server and rely them - and any
responses - back and forth, often resulting in messages that are out of
sequence or late or simply lost. And they probably don't carry all of the
2000+ NGs offered. And they often charge for the service, either explicitly
or as a service buried in the ISP's monthly subscription fee. It's much
better to connect directly. And it's FREE! ;<)

Welcome aboard!

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100