Return to Inbox—the smartest choice

If you haven’t changed Outlook’s default settings, you’ve probably noticed that when you close or delete an open email, Outlook automatically opens the next message in the Inbox. Although this is a convenient setting when you have a list of email to read, it isn’t a good idea because the next message in line could be a risky one.

Consider this scenario: You’ve deleted an email and the next message asks you to send a read receipt. Unfortunately, you can’t see what the message contains until after you accept the receipt. If that email message is spam, accepting the receipt automatically informs the spammer that your email address is valid. Additionally, automatically viewing an HTML-formatted email executes whatever code it contains—a serious security risk.

Instead, set Outlook to return to the Inbox when you close or delete an email as follows:

1. Select Tools | Options from Outlooks main menu.
2. On the Preferences tab, click the E-mail Options button to open the E-mail Options dialog box.
3. In the Message Handling pane, select Return To The Inbox from the After Moving Or Deleting An Open Item dropdown list. Now, when you close or delete an email, you simply return to the folder list in Outlook rather than going directly to the next message.