Q. How can I reset the unread-email counter on the Windows XP Welcome logon screen?
A. The unread-email counter that appears on the XP Welcome screen can sometimes indicate that more unread messages exist than the actual number of messages. Although several scenarios can lead to this error, a common example is when another user accesses your machine to check his or her email while you're logged on.
The best way to clear the unread-email counter is to download the Tweak UI XP PowerToy (
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp ) and perform the following steps:
1. Start Tweak UI.
2. Select the Repair branch in the left-hand pane of the dialog box.
3. Select "Repair unread mail count" in the right-hand pane, then click "Repair Now".
4. Close Tweak UI.
Alternatively, you can use the registry to reset the unread-email counter by performing the following steps:
1. Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail\<email
address> subkey.
3. Double-click Message Count, set the value to 0, then click OK.
4. Close the registry editor.
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Q. How can I remove the unread-email counter from the Windows XP Welcome logon screen?
A. If your computer belongs to a workgroup and you use the XP Welcome logon screen to log on to that workgroup, the OS will display the number of unread messages on the logon screen. To disable this feature, perform the following steps:
1. Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
subkey.
3. Double-click MessageExpiryDays (or create a new value of type DWORD if MessageExpiryDays doesn't exist), set the value to 0, then click OK.
4. Close the registry editor.