In Outlook 2013, Desktop Alert helps us know there is a new email message as soon as it arrives, it is a useful feature for users but may also bring confusion sometimes. I hope it will help our users understand this feature more after reading this article.

It only works on the Inbox folder

One of the most common questions I have seen about the features is: I have turned on the Desktop Alert in Outlook Options, why doesnt it show when certain emails arrive?

Yes, if we need to turn on this option, we should go to FILE -> Options -> Mail -> Message arrival -> Tick Display a Desktop Alert and click OK:

However, it only works on the Inbox folder. The users may see this issue if they have configured a rule to move certain emails to other folders, the option doesnt work in such scenario.

The resolution is actually quite simple: Turn on the display a Desktop Alert in the rule actions:

Make it work on all folders

As introduced in the first section, the option only works on the Inbox folder, we need to configure rules to make it work on each folder and it sounds tiresome Actually there is a way to work this around, by one rule:

1. Click FILE -> Info -> Manage Rules & Alerts.
2. Click the New Rule button.
3. Select Apply rule on messages I receive, click Next button.
4. Dont select any condition, click Next button; Outlook will ask This rule will be applied to every message you receive. Is this correct? Click Yes.
5. Select display a Desktop Alert, click Finish.
6. Move the rule to top to make sure it will run.

Then for all emails you receive you will get a Desktop Alert.

The change since Windows 8, Windows 8.1

Since Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, the Outlook Desktop Alert is based on the Notification feature in Windows. For Outlook 2013, it means the new email alert is no longer show in the New Mail Desktop Alert from Outlook, instead it becomes a Windows 8 style notification in the top-right corner.

In Windows 7:

In Windows 8.1:

In Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 to make sure the alert is displayed, please go to the Notifications settings and turn on the notification for Outlook 2013:

Note: The notification will show only when both the alert in Outlook and this notification in Windows for Outlook have been turned on.

Control how long the alerts last for

When you use Outlook 2013 in Windows 8/8.1, as mentioned above, Outlook will use the Windows Notification to alert new emails. By default the notifications are displayed for 5 seconds for all apps.

If the users need to change this, we have three methods to change it to 7, 15 or 30 seconds or 1 or 5 minutes:

1. Go to Control Panel -> Ease of Access -> Ease of Access Center -> Use the computer without a display -> How long should Windows notification dialog boxes stay open? Click on the droplist and select the duration you need.
2. Open the PC Settings to modify:

In Windows 8

Charms -> Settings -> Change PC Settings -> Ease of Access -> Show notifications for x seconds/minutes

In Windows 8.1

Charms -> Settings -> Change PC Settings -> Ease of Access -> Other options -> Show notifications for x seconds/minutes

1. Modify it in the Registry.

Browse to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility

Find the Value MessageDuration, enter the duration in seconds.

Since there is a maximum limit 5 minutes, any setting longer than 300 will end up displaying the notification for 300 seconds/5 minutes.

We can actually make it 45 seconds or 180 seconds/3 minutes as we want, but it will display it as 5 minutes if we go to the settings introduced above.

In Windows 7, we need to modify the Registry to control how long the alert lasts for:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\DesktopAlerts

Value name: TimeOn

Value type: REG_DWORD

Value: 0 4294964295

Note: The value is defined in millise