How to get rid of Unread Mail Count in Windows XP

Posted on May 16, 2008 at 5:28 am

If you’re using Windows XP, you might have noticed that annoying “X Unread Mail Messages” message that shows up below the user name on the logon screen. It’s actually a pretty useless number considering it never seems to be right, at least for me.

By default, the Unread Mail Count is derived by looking at all accounts that have been checked within the last three days, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, and the MSN browser client. The problem is that it includes all the accounts of other people who have checked their email under the same user name.

Image Source: Poremsky

There are two ways to get rid of the unread mail messages line under the user name in XP: edit the registry or download the Microsoft Tweak UI Power Toy and change the setting there. I’ll go ahead and describe both methods since they are pretty easy.

Remove XP Unread Mail Count - Registry

Before you modify the registry, always be sure to make a backup! If you don’t know how to make a backup of the registry, then don’t use this method! First open the registry editor by clicking on Start, choosing Run and then typing in REGEDIT.

Now navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail

Note that you will not see this key if you are in a domain environment, so it won’t be there on office or corporate computers most likely.

Once there create a new DWORD Value (right-click on the UnreadMail key in left-hand pane, New > DWORD Value) and call it MessageExpiryDays.

Double click on the MessageExpiryDays value you just created and set the value to 0 though it should be the default value already.

That’s it! You’ve now disabled the unread mail message count in Windows XP! Now you’ll just see the usernames without all those useless unread email counts.

Turn off login screen Unread Mail Count using Tweak UI

Ahhh so let’s just do it the easy way! Download the Tweak UI Power Toy and install it. Now open it up and go to Logon at the bottom. Under that you’ll see the option Unread Mail.

Go ahead and uncheck the “Show unread mail on Welcome screen” option to disable the Unread Mail count. That’s it! A lot easier right!? The next time you log on, the screen will not display your unread message count like shown above. Enjoy! Source: Poremsky

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12 Responses to “How to get rid of Unread Mail Count in Windows XP”

DoneThat2 said on : May 16th, 2008 at 6:54 am

Thanks. I’ve been wondering how to get rid of the e-mail message.

Instead of the email message, I’d like the Welcome screen to identify, for each user account, if it has Administrator or Limited User rights. Is there a registry hack to replace the unread e-mail message with a “user-type” identification message?

akishore said on : May 16th, 2008 at 9:39 am

DoneThat2, not really sure if there is a way to do that. I would have to check and get back to you!

Vaibhav said on : May 17th, 2008 at 2:06 am

Great tip, it was much required.

DeadlyDad said on : May 18th, 2008 at 11:42 am

DoneThat2: If you type ‘control userpasswords2′ in Start/Run, it will show you who has what privileges. You can also on a program and select ‘Run as…’. Only accounts that have admin will show up as defaults.

airgle said on : May 20th, 2008 at 11:40 am

I have been thinking of this issue for years, and just could not get rid of email count (I think the feature is stupid because it doesn’t report a right count) thanks for the information. appreciated it

James said on : June 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

I’m using XP Pro. I had to go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of local machine.

Debi said on : June 30th, 2008 at 3:07 am

“Now navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail

Note that you will not see this key if you are in a domain environment, so it won’t be there on office or corporate computers most likely.”

How can I get the undread messages from a registry key in a domain environment??

keith said on : July 13th, 2008 at 9:59 am

i still cant get rid of the x mail message when i log on to xp.

Zach Eck said on : May 27th, 2009 at 5:39 pm

Thanks! I really wanted to get rid of this message since even though I have a hotmail e-mail, I use g-mail, and the only e-mails I get for hotmail are spam.

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