How to Delete Email

How can I delete an e-mail message without opening it first?

This question is a little more complicated than one may think. It also depends on how you've got your e-mail program set up and what version you are running.

The simple answer to this one is no. Outlook Express (what Richard and most other people are using) will preview the email regardless of how it's clicked on in the list. Even if you right click on it to try and delete it, it'll still preview.

So, what constitutes "opening" an e-mail? If Outlook Express is set up so that you have a preview window underneath the list of emails, and you click on the email and see it in the preview window, is it open? Well, yes - sort of. Is opening an email in this way dangerous? It can be, if you have not kept your system software (Outlook Express) updated using WindowsUpdate then it may be very dangerous. Any version of Outlook Express before 5.5 has security problems and should be updated as quickly as possible. Version 6 is the best. It causes the least amount of errors and has the best security against viruses. If you are using an older version of OE, there are certain viruses that can run just by previewing, so it's really important to keep things updated.

Where the real danger with e-mails comes from is not from opening the e-mail itself but from opening the file attached to the email. Read this article to see what I'm talking about.

Now, if you turn off the preview window (View | Layout | Uncheck "Show Preview Pane) so that you will have to double click the email to open it in another window to read it, you CAN delete an email with out seeing any of it. Does this make any difference to computer security if you have your software up to date? Not really.

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