Trust Filter for MS Outlook

Sponsored by PokerManager - live advice and hand statistics for online Texas Hold'em players

About   Features   Screenshots   Download   Support   History   Forum

Trust Filter is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook.  Trust Filter automatically scans your incoming emails and moves them to an "Untrusted" folder if the sender's email address does not exist in your Trust List.  This helps you manage the amount of SPAM in your default Inbox folder.

• Feb 25, 2004 - v1.1.0.6 is ready for download
• Apr 8, 2003 - Trust Filter can now be found on NetGuideWeb
• Dec 30, 2002 - Trust Filter is now available on C/Net's Download site!

One user writes:

"BTW, congratulations, I now have 4000+ emails in my trusted list and get around 500 spams / day - your product is the ONLY one that can handle this volume.  Tried ChoiceMail, Valicomm and MailFrontier - the only other "trusted email" solutions and all of them crashed under the heavy load I placed on them."

• Plugs in to the MS Outlook toolbar
• Automatically scan Inbox for untrusted emails when new mail arrives
• Easy to manage Trust List:
  • Collect trusted emails from your mail folders & contacts
  • Add, Delete, Sort, & Search emails in your trust list
  • Trust/Untrust selected emails
• Optionally mark untrusted emails as "read"
• New!  Can trust all emails from a domain (e.g., trust everyone in your company)
• Trust Filter is Free!
• Delphi Source Code is available

This is what Trust Filter looks like when it plugs in to the MS Outlook toolbar:

Note that when installed the "Trust Filter" button is placed on the far-right of the standard toolbar.  I used Outlook's customize feature to move the button to the far left.

Download

Click here to download:  Download Trust Filter v1.1.0.4  (625 KB)

Click the link above and choose "Save As".  Save the file to your Desktop or to a folder you can easily locate.  Note that the file is an "exe" file, not a "zip" file.  When the download is finished, you can run the install executable.  See Installation notes below.  If you have problems downloading, try turning off any download accelerator utilities.

Advanced users may download the Delphi source code.

Installation

Trust Filter requires MS Outlook 2000 or better.  It also requires that Outlook's CDO components are installed.  If you receive an error stating that "MAPI object can't be created", you need to install Outlook's CDO component from your Office installer CD.

Before installing Trust Filter, shut down MS Outlook.  It is also a good idea to make a backup copy of your Outlook PST file.

To install Trust Filter, just run the setup executable.  After installing, you can restart MS Outlook and should see the "Trust Filter" button on the standard toolbar at the far right.  You can use Outlook's Customize popup menu to move the button to the far left for easier access.  Important Note - do not move the Trust Filter button to Outlook's menubar, see Known Bugs below.

Terminology

• Trust List - a list of email addresses from senders that you trust.
• Untrusted Folder - a folder beneath your Inbox called "Untrusted".  This is where untrusted emails are moved after performing a scan.

Getting Started

After starting Trust Filter for the first time, you will want to create your "Trust List".  The easiest way to do this is to use "Collect Trusted Emails from Folder" menu on the "Trust List" dropdown.  A dialog will display your mail folders and some options.  Most users can just select their Inbox and subfolders for creating the list.  Now press "Collect" and Trust Filter will scan your folders and populate your Trust List.  If you have lots of emails, it can take a while to generate the list.

Once the trust list is created, you can view & edit the list.  You can sort the list by pressing the column headings.  It can be useful to sort by the "Last Seen" column, and then delete any old emails from your Trust List.  You can select multiple items in the list by using the Shift or Control keys when clicking.

Now that your trust list is setup, when new mail arrives it will automatically be placed in the "Untrusted" folder if the sender's email address in not in your Trust List.

Tips

• You can select multiple emails in the Trust List by using the Shift or Control keys when clicking
• You can make a backup of your Trust List by using the "Save" feature in the View Trust List window.
• The Trust List file (.TST) is really just a text file that you can edit with Notepad or Excel.
• You can speed up the scan process by making sure you don't have lots of unread items in your Inbox folder.  Trust List only scans unread items, and therefore works quicker if there are fewer unread items.
• Trust List defaults to scanning your root Inbox folder when mail arrives.  But you can also scan subfolders by selecting the folder, and then selecting "Scan Folder for Untrusted Emails" in the "Trust Filter" dropdown.  When doing a manual scan all items are scanned, not just unread items.
• If an email gets placed in the Untrusted folder but you trust the sender, then select that email and then press the "Trust..." menu on the "Trust Filter" dropdown.  Email from that sender will now be trusted in future scans.
• You can turn off the automatic scanning under Trust Filter's Options.  If you do this you will need to manually scan your folders to move emails to the Untrusted folder.
• If you run MS Outlook and don't see the "Trust Filter" button on the toolbar, simply run the installation program again to re-register the plug-in.

Notes

• Trust Filter does NOT provide any additional protection against email worms or viruses.  You need a tool like Norton Anti Virus to protect against email viruses.  Trust Filter only helps sorts incoming email into the Untrusted folder.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about Trust Filter, you can post them on the Trust Filter Message board.

Note that posting messages requires registration.  Simply create a new account on WebBoard, and your password will be emailed to you.  You can then post questions.

I would appreciate any feedback on Trust Filter!  Let me know if you like it, or have suggestions for new features, etc.  Thanks for using Trust Filter!

Note that there is NO WARRANTY FOR TRUST FILTER.  USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.  I have tested Trust Filter on MS Outlook 2000 under Windows 2000 and have not seen any fatal bugs.  However, you must use at your own risk.

If you would like to support Trust Filter with a donation, it would be greatly appreciated.   I accept payments through PayPal with the following link:

Known Bugs

• Do NOT move the "Trust Filter" button to Outlook's Menu bar using the Customize feature.  This can crash Outlook!  I am working on a fix for this, but for now just leave the button on the toolbar.  If any experts in Outlook automation know why this might be happening, please let me know!
• If you see an error message "Unable to create MAPI.Session object" you need to install Outlook's CDO objects using the Outlook/Office install CD.

Feb 25, 2004 - v1.1.0.6

• Options dialog now has an option to automatically reply to untrusted emails with a form email.
• Fixed bug in playing sound for new email. 

Feb 13, 2004 - v1.1.0.4

• Trust Filter now works with Outlook's security model.  This means you won't have to press OK to a dialog to let Trust Filter interact with Outlook.  This was accomplished by using the Outlook Redemption package.
• Trust Filter can now populate the Trust List from Contacts as well as old emails.
• Added an option to play a sound when a Trusted email arrives.  With this feature, you can turn off Outlook's sound option, and only hear a sound when its a Trusted new email.

Feb 25, 2003 - v1.0.0.3

• Added domain trust feature.  To trust a domain, go to "View Trusted Emails", then select "Edit", "Add Trusted Email".  Simply type in the "@" and the domain name, for example:  "@yourcompany.com".  Now everyone with an email that ends in "@yourcompany.com" will automatically be trusted.
• Removed the requirement that emails have an "@" character.  This allows for adding certain Outlook Exchange email addresses that don't have the "@" character.

Trust Filter was written in Borland Delphi 7.0 by Ben Ziegler.  I am a Delphi/C++ programmer with 10 years of experience and currently reside in Falls Church, VA (USA).

Sponsored by PokerManager - live advice and hand statistics for online Texas Hold'em players

Thanks

The following websites were helpful in creating Trust Filter:

• Dmitry Streblechenko's Babel Fish for Outlook project
• Deborah Pate's Automating Outlook page