Outlook 2010 New Mail Desktop Alerts Not Working In Windows 7

One thing I noticed when I made the change from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2010 was the fact that the little mail icon that used to display when I received an email was no longer displaying in the notification area of the Windows 7 taskbar. I assumed that it was simply a configuration that needed to be made but when I finally got around to looking into this a two days ago I realized that I had Outlook configured properly. After some research I found out that Outlook 2010 does not display desktop alerts, which include the mail icon as well as pop up desktop alerts, properly on Windows 7 x64 computers. After looking around I came up with a solution that ended up costing me $7 but was well worth having the notification icon display when new email is received in Outlook 2010.

Outlook 2010 Notification Icon & Desktop Alert Configuration:

The above example image shows all the available options that can be configured in Outlook 2010 when an email is received. They have all been disabled in my configuration since I am now using a third party Outlook 2010 add-on which I explain in more detail below. It is absolutely nuts to me that these settings don’t work even when configured properly in Outlook 2010 but I wanted to display where they are located so you could configure them however you want if Microsoft decides to resolve the issue.

Outlook 2010 Desktop Alerts:

If you don’t care about the mail envelope displaying in the Windows taskbar then you can get away without configuring Desktop Alerts when new email is received via Outlook Rules. I personally don’t like the Desktop Alerts because I receive to much email and it becomes distracting but if you prefer this over the mail icon then you could configure an Outlook Rule similar to the following.

Outlook Rule For Desktop Alert When Email Is Received:

Launch the Rules Wizard by clicking Rules in the top navigation bar of Outlook 2010 and select Manage Rules & Alerts from the drop down menu. In the Rules and Alerts window click on New Rule to Launch the Rules Wizard.

1. Rule On Messages Received: Select Apply Rule On Messages I Receive located under the Start From A Blank Rule sub section and then click the Next button.

   

2. On This Computer Only: Scroll to the bottom of the list in the next window and put a check next to On This Computer Only and then click the Next button.

   

3. Display A Desktop Alert: Again scroll to the bottom of the list to put a check next to Display A Desktop Alert and then click the Next button.

   

   If you want to display a specific message in the Desktop Alerts then you can select Display A Message In The New Item Alert Window.

4. Name New Rule: After clicking Next in the above window you will be taken to an exception window which you can simply click the Next button to skip past. The final window is where you will name the Rule as shown below and then click the Finish button to complete the Outlook Rule setup.

   

5. Test Email Desktop Alerts: Now send yourself an email and you should see a message similar to the below example Desktop Alert in the lower right corner of your computers desktop.

   

Display Envelope Icon In Taskbar When Email Received In Outlook 2010:

If you want the envelope icon to display in the taskbar then best way I found to do that is by installing a third party Add-In called Mail Alert which can be downloaded here. You can install the trial for Mail Alert to verify it does what you want it to but after a small amount of alerts are issued you will be required to purchase Mail Alert for $6.95. Mail Alert is easy to install and just as easy to configure as shown below in the Mail Alert configuration window.

You open the Mail Alert configuration options by selecting Add-ins from the top navigation bar in Outlook, clicking on Mail Alert, and selecting Mail Alert Options from the drop down menu that displays. The great thing about these options is when they are configured they actually work! As you can see above I have configured Play A Sound and Display An Icon In The Notification Area as the ways I want to be notified about new mail. Now when email is received an envelope icon displays in the notification area of the Windows 7 taskbar.

So now you have options for configuring ways to be notified when email is received in Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 x64 computers.