You know how in Outlook you can set things up so that when the recipient of an email reads your email, they get some sort of notification or return receipt? What I want to know is if there is a way that I can disable that on my end.
In other words; is it possible to prevent the sender of emails to know if I have read their message or not?
Thanks in advance.
Use the preview pane. This will allow you to read the email without actually opening it. Opening is what triggers the return receipt.
In Outlook98/2k, click view->preview pane. In Outlook express click view->layout and check the show preview pane box. Then click tools->options->read tab. Uncheck the boxes next to “mark message read after displaying for…” and “Automatically download message when viewing in preview pane”.
This should allow you to read the messages without sending the return receipt. It may however, send one when you delete it, because senders can also set one to notify them when a message has been deleted without being read. Don’t know any way to get around that one.
Hope this helps.
Pebs
Johnny Pebs, sort of. The problem basically is that I work Tech Support (a great part of which is email), what happens is that (even though I use the preview pane) when I switch between mailboxes, the message is marked as read, sending the receipt.
This is kind of a hassle because then people start sending emails demanding to know why I haven’t answered then, when they know I read the email. Perhaps there is a way to change settings so that things are not marked as read until I double click on them…
I use Outlook, and it always prompts me before sending a return receipt. Often, I click ‘no’ and the return is not sent.
Perhaps there’s a setting somewhere to turn this prompt on.
I’m on Outlook 2002 SP2.
Binarydrone, if you’re using Outlook2K, click tools->options->‘other’ tab->preview pane. You can then deselect “Mark item as read when selection changes” also “Mark messages as read in preview pane window” if it is selected. See what that gets ya.
Pebs
Johnny Pebs, that’s awesome…I’ll have to try that on Monday. What I’ve been doing is turning preview pane off, dragging the email to my desktop (making a copy which does not inherit the receipt) then opening the copy…no good if there is an attachment though.
Snetho, when you work at a helpdesk for a living, and they plunk four PCs on your desk loaded with various apps you pick up a few things.
Also, I use Outlook express at home and used to use Outlook at our other site. Now I’m stuck using Lotus Notes 
Pebs
That will do the trick!
I believe, however, that any viruses that exploit outlook holes can still do so in the preview pane. Whether it “counts” the mail as read or not, it has to open it to give you a preview. Can anyone corroborate this?
i’m using outlook. under options>email options>tracking options
you can adjust various settings for receipts/responses, such as turning them off or set them to ask permission etc…
The solution suggested by shijinn is much, much cleaner. I’m running Outlook 2002, and have found that it’s a little flaky when it comes to marking items as “read.” In short, its behavior is not always predictable. Setting the tracking options to ask your permission before sending a receipt is more bulletproof.
Ahem. I really shouldn’t give it away, but as a last resort:
Create Inbox Rule #1: All mail to yourself from yourself gets sent to the delete box. Stop processing rules.
Rule #2: All mail directly sent to you gets forwarded to yourself.
If your local naz^H^H^Hsysadmin doesn’t let you change the receipt rules, the above ruleset will allow you to read all the messages in (from yourself) in the delete bin in their entirety without triggering the read receipt. If you don’t care, the messages will simply be automatically deleted when the time comes.
You might want to turn on the “Read Receipt Requested” in your inbox list view. Quick way to tell who wants to know when you’ve read it.
It’s a workaround, but it works and I use it daily. Stupid Lookout. Why people use that thing voluntarily is beyond me…
If you go to Tools->Options->Prefences->email options->Tracking Options you can turn off return receipts or have it prompt you (like I previouslys described). These options only apply to internet mail though.
So you’re criticizing Outlook because, instead of using the tools it gives you, you instead resort to complicated workarounds? As several posters have already made clear, Outlook contains a very simple setting that asks for your permission before it sends a read receipt to anyone. Why not use that simple setting? Too boring?
First, thanks for this suggestion. It sounds like what I need. That said, there are some nuances that I don’t get. It looks as if the “Always or Never send a response” options are grayed out and claim to only be for internet email (whatever that means) so I am not sure the exact setting that I am looking for.
Any clarification will be most welcome.
In a corporate environment, your mail might be coming from an Exchange server, in which case it isn’t counted as internet mail (which comes from a POP or maybe IMAP server). If this is the case, those options I described likely won’t work.
The easiest thing to do is to set it to prompt you, and see if it does.
This probably isn’t relevant, but some emails will be sent in html where there is a graphic that has some unique name. When this graphic is pulled from it’s server across the internet, the server registers that it was pulled, and if the other party is watching, they will know you read the email. This is true whether you open it or just view it in the preview pane. In fact, this works in any email program that renders HTML.
In particular, sometimes spammers send these sorts of things to random addresses, then watch which ones actually view their content, and focus future spams on those. I also personally use this technique occasionally when I want to know when my emails are read, and by who. (note that the IP address of the recipient is trackable via this technique).
Also note that this technique doesn’t even require a viewable graphic, I typically include 1 pixel by 1 pixel graphic that in fact doesn’t even exist. Stealthy.
With Outlook 2000 connecting to an Exchange server, you can only not mark the mail as read to avoid sending a receipt. If, however, you eventually delete the mail, a receipt will be sent then saying you deleted the mail without reading it.
In some e-mail clients, you can disable pulling images from external sources. I forget whether I saw this in Eudora or Mozilla Mail - I personally don’t use an e-mail client that interprets HTML.
for those using outlook 2002, hates html emails and is comfortable with their registry settings you might want to try http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307594
i’m fine with html so i haven’t tried this myself, but it’s supposed to read all unsafe mails as text, including the preview pane…