How To Configure Desktop Alerts

Desktop Alert is a notification that appears on your desktop when you receive a new email message, meeting request, or task request. By default, Desktop Alerts are turned on.


The information displayed in a Desktop Alert varies depending on the item that you receive in your Inbox.

  • Email message Displays the name of the sender, the subject, and the first two lines of the message. A Desktop Alert doesn’t display the contents of an encrypted or digitally signed message. To view the message, you must open it.
  • Meeting request Displays the sender, subject, date, time, and location of the meeting.
  • Task request Displays the sender, subject, and start date of the assigned task.

Tip: If you want to keep a Desktop Alert visible so that you can take more time to read it, rest the pointer on the alert before it fades from view.

To turn on or off Desktop Alerts

  1. Click File 
  2. Click Options
  3. Click Mail
  4. Under Message arrival, select or clear the Display a Desktop Alert check box

Note: To suppress other notifications such as playing sounds, changing the mouse pointer, or displaying an envelope icon in the taskbar, clear the respective check boxes for those functions.

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