November 3, 2024

Email messages in Outlook.com can be blocked, added to the safe sender’s list, be moved to the junk folder, or be marked as phishing messages directly from the inbox. These options are not enabled by default though, and so they need to be enabled through the Message surface actions.

Here is how:

Login to Outlook.com and click on the gear icon.

accessing outlook.com quick settings

Then, click on View all Outlook settings.

view all outlook settings
Choose Mail > Customize actions.

customize mail actions in outlook.com

Scroll down to Message surface. This shows the various actions that will be visible once a message is selected.

Adding Message surface actions:

message surface options in outlook.com

Enable the actions for Add to Safe senders, Mark as junk, Mark as phishing, and Block from here.

These actions will now be displayed on the selected email messages.

message actions for inbox filtering in outlook.com
From now on, you can then directly apply any of these actions to the messages right from the inbox.

Safe senders list:

To add a sender to the safe list, click on the Add to Safe senders icon.

safe senders message action
Click on OK to confirm.

adding message to safe senders list in outlook.com

Phishing messages:

For reporting a message as a phishing message, click on the phishing icon.

phishing message action

Then, choose Report.

marking emails as phishing scams in outlook.com

Blocking senders:

Similarly, to directly block a sender right from the inbox, select the message and click on the Block icon.

blocked senders message action
Click OK to confirm.

blocking senders using outlook.com message actions

Junk messages:

Choosing the Mark as junk option will immediately move the selected message to the Junk folder.

junk email message action

messages that are marked as junk are moved to junk folder in outlook.com

Also, if you have marked emails as junk or blocked senders in error, these can be removed from the blocked list by going to Mail > Junk email and removing the senders and domains from the blocked list.

managing junk email settings in outlook.com

Here is how to do that.

So these Outlook.com actions are a time-saver once enabled as you can then better filter and manage your inbox.

Happy emailing.

By admin

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