Here is a quick way to control how the pop up email notification (you might know it as the desktop alert, or toast) acts and looks in Outlook 2007.

1. Got to Tools, then Options in the menu
2. On the preferences tab, in the E-mail section click on the “E-mail Options…” button
3. Then click on the “Advanced E-mail Options…” button
4. Then click on the “Desktop Alert Settings…” button

From this window you can control how long your Desktop Alerts appear for, and how transparent they are.

By default, your email notification/popup/desktop alert/toast will appear for 7 seconds.  The minimum you can set this to is 3 seconds, the maximum is 30 seconds.

As for transparency, the default is 20%.  It can be solid (0%) or can go to a maximum of 80% transparency.  Any more and you couldn’t see it!

If you don’t want desktop alerts at all… read about how you can turn them off in an earlier article I wrote – How to turn on or off new email notifications in Outlook 2007

’till next time
TNP