About schedules

You can automate certain tasks, such as sending and receiving messages or emptying the Deleted Items folder, by setting up schedules. When you set up a schedule, you tell Outlook Express what to do and when to do it. Outlook Express then performs the tasks at the specified time. For example, you can set up a schedule so that Outlook Express connects to the server and checks your e-mail every two hours.

In Microsoft Outlook Express, you can set up as many schedules as you want, enable or disable schedules as needed, and use different schedules at different times. For example, you can set up one schedule for checking e-mail at home, and another for checking e-mail when you are traveling.

Additionally, you can override your default account settings when you run a schedule. This way you can have a travel schedule that prevents large messages from being received, thereby minimizing connection charges when you're away from home. If you have an IMAP, Hotmail, or news account, you can also specify which subscribed server folders you want to receive mail from. When you return home, you can restore your default settings.

Outlook Express includes three built-in schedules that you can change to meet your needs, or you can create new ones. (If you are upgrading from a previous version of Outlook Express, you'll find that the Send & Receive All schedule runs at the time interval you specified previously.)

Creating a schedule

Enabling or disabling a schedule

Changing or deleting a schedule

Running a schedule manually

Override default POP account settings for a schedule

About synchronizing folders

About mail accounts

About folders

About subscriptions to IMAP folders

Create a schedule

On the Tools menu, click Schedules.
Click New.
In the Name box, type a name for the schedule.
Under When, click an item on the pop-up menu.
If you click Timed Schedule or Repeating Schedule, select the time interval options you want.
To add additional times to the schedule, click Add Occurrence, and then repeat step 4.
If you want the schedule to run only when you are connected to the Internet, select the Only if connected check box.
Under Action, click an item from each pop-up menu moving from left to right.
To perform additional tasks, click Add Action, and then repeat step 7.
In the Dial-Up options area, click Stay Connected or Close to indicate whether you want Outlook Express to remain connected after running the schedule.
If you click Return to Previous State, Outlook Express, if it connected to the server to run the schedule, disconnects after running the schedule; if Outlook Express was already connected, it remains connected.

About schedules

Enabling or disabling a schedule

Override default POP account settings for a schedule

About synchronizing folders

Enable or disable a schedule

On the Tools menu, click Schedules.
In the Enabled column, select or clear the check box next to the schedule you want to enable or disable.

Creating a schedule

Changing or deleting a schedule

Change or delete a schedule

On the Tools menu, click Schedules.
Click the schedule, and then do one of the following:
- To change the schedule, click Edit.
- To delete the schedule, click Delete.

Enabling or disabling a schedule

Run a schedule manually

On the Tools menu, point to Run Schedule, and then click the schedule you want to run.

Creating a schedule

Override default POP account settings for a schedule

If a schedule includes Retrieve Mail or Retrieve News actions, you can temporarily add or remove the message size restriction in your POP account settings.

On the Tools menu, click Schedules.
Click the schedule, and then click Edit.
Under Action, click Click here for account options.
Select the Override default account settings check box, and then do one of the following:
- To add a size restriction, select the Partially retrieve messages over _ KB check box, and then type a number in the box.
- To remove a size restriction, clear the Partially retrieve messages over _ KB check box.

Creating a schedule

Changing or deleting a schedule

About leaving POP messages on the server

About synchronizing server folders

If you have a mail account that stores your messages in server folders (IMAP, Hotmail, or news), you can set up a schedule that checks only certain folders for new messages. Running such a schedule is called synchronizing folders.

If you set up a schedule for an IMAP or news account, you can also specify how you want to receive messages in each folder. For example, you can create a schedule that receives entire messages in some folders, receives only message headers in some folders, and ignores other folders entirely.


	If you have an IMAP or news account, you can run schedules only for folders that you are subscribed to.

About mail accounts

Specifying folders to synchronize

Creating a schedule

About folders

Specify server folders to synchronize

For a schedule that includes Retrieve Mail or Retrieve News actions, you can specify which IMAP, Hotmail, or news server folders you want to synchronize.

On the Tools menu, click Schedules.
Click the schedule, and then click Edit.
Under Action, click Click here for account options.
Do one of the following:
- To include a folder in the synchronization schedule, select the check box next to the folder, and then click an option on the pop-up menu, if available.
- To exclude a folder from the synchronization schedule, clear the check box next to the folder.
Click OK.

About synchronizing folders