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Email (Junk Mail/SPAM Filtering)
Overview
Junk email, also known as spam, has become an annoyance for many home users whose email inboxes can quickly get flooded with unwanted messages.
Mac OS X
Mail includes a solid junk mail filter which sports a wide array of options. In addition to its own junk mail filtering algorithm, Mail leverages your ISP's junk mail filters by honoring junk mail headers set by your service provider.
Mail's junk mail filtering preferences
Initially, Mail's filter is set in "training" mode, which marks suspected junk mail as such. When you feel that the filter is working accurately, you can switch it to "automatic," which will move all junk mail directly into Mail's Junk box. Incoming junk messages are filed there immediately - they won't even appear in your inbox. If Mail incorrectly marks a message that isn't junk as such, you can click the junk mail button in the main toolbar (or the large "Not Junk" button in the message header) to correct the mistake. Likewise, you can also manually mark messages as junk if Mail's filter doesn't pick up on it.
You can exempt email addresses in your Address Book, previous recipients, or messages addressed using your full name from junk filtering. Clicking the Advanced button allows you to configure additional junk e-mail settings:
Windows XP
Outlook Express lacks true junk mail filtering, though XP users could attempt to create their own mail rules to filter junk mail. You can also configure Outlook Express to not display certain images in emails (which are used as a tracking mechanism by spammers):
Conclusion
OS X's Mail offers an excellent built-in junk mail filter with a considerable number of options, such as the ability to trust junk mail headers sent by your ISP, as well as specify advanced settings for filtering. Outlook Express has no built-in junk mail filter, leaving users no choice but to manually create filtering rules in an attempt to block junk mail.
Mac OS X: 8
Windows XP: 2
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