ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: I am running Office 2010 Student Edition with Outlook as my email program. Lately some of the emails are coming into the Inbox and then immediately moving to the Junk box (ex. Facebook notifications and some legitimate address). Some unwanted emails have been flagged as junk and are removed from the inbox.  I cannot see anything in any of the settings etc. that will force these messages to move.

– Deane W.
Fort Walton Beach, Florida

A:  My first thought on this problem is that the reason you can’t find anything in Outlook’s settings is that it is probably not Outlook that is moving the messages.  When Outlook flags junk messages, it puts them in a folder that is explicitly named “Junk E-Mail” and not just “Junk”.  If you’re finding one or more folders named “Junk” your problem lies elsewhere.

I’m going to assume you’ve been through all of Outlook’s rules and other settings that could affect junk mail.  I also am assuming that you would be aware if either you or your ISP has e-mail filters in place that may be “helping” you by flagging messages as SPAM.  If you aren’t 100% sure about your ISP, certainly a call to their customer service is in order.

The other likely culprit here is a Smartphone or tablet that is configured to access this account.  Such a configuration is quite commonplace nowadays, as it allows you to read e-mail both at home and on-the-go.  When mail is read, deleted, or moved on one device, that status is nearly instantaneously reflected on all devices.  That would include if some device was marking mail as junk and moving it.  The way to test this theory is to either disable the e-mail account from the mobile device, or power the mobile device off.  If the problem in Outlook goes away, you’ve found the source – you just need to determine the cause.  If the account is accessed on more than one mobile device, make sure they are all disabled during the test.  Good luck!

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Q: You recently posted something about Windows 10 in one of your columns, but unfortunately the paper was thrown out before I had a chance to read it. I have tried to find the comment here in your previous publications but have been unable to find it. Please let me know how I may be able to locate it as I would like to know your feelings on downloading it from the “free” site that keeps popping upon my computer.

 – Wayne S.
Navarre, Florida

A:  I assume when you say “here in your previous publications” that you mean the column archive on my website at ItsGeekToMe.co.  That would be the most reliable place to find what you’re looking for, as it is the only place that I know of on the entire World-Wide Web where you can find every single issue of I.G.T.M. that has ever published.  Including this one, that is 436 issues, so it can be a little challenging to find what you’re looking for. 

In your case, however, you’re looking for information about Windows 10, which has only been out since July 29, 2015.  That means there are fewer than about 20 possible columns you might want to read.  You could find what you’re looking for by simply browsing the columns.  All the columns in the archive have hyperlinks that lead to the previous or next column, so you can quickly click through them to find what you want.

If you want a more precise way of searching, there is a search box at the top of every page of the website.  This is a keyword search, so just put in “Windows 10” (you should include the quotes to ensure you get the exact phrase, and not any page that has either “Windows” or “10” on it.  While writing this column, I ran such a search, and found only seven columns since July 29^th that contain your target keyword.  That should narrow your search a bit.

Now that you’ve learned a little about finding information on ItsGeekToMe.co, let me more directly answer your question.  At this point in its lifecycle, your options for upgrading to Windows 10 are rather limited.  As long as the “free site” that you mentioned takes the form of a Windows logo in or near the notification area in your main Windows toolbar, you can rest assured that is a genuine Microsoft-offered upgrade.  The process is a little kludgy, and runs on Microsoft’s timetable rather than yours, but it does work, and it’s probably your best free option for updating to Windows 10 at this time. It is possible to manually download Windows 10 and install it yourself, but that process is not fully automated like the “free site” is.