Unread Mail Folder in Outlook Today

One thing that always bothered me about the Outlook Today page in Outlook was the inability to add Search Folders to the Messages section. Today I learned that it is possible, but it requires editing the registry. Here’s how:

Open Regedit and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Today\Folders (12.0 is for Office 2007, use 11.0 for Office 2003)

By default your Inbox is included in the list. Since I only wanted my Unread Folders I simply modified the existing entry. However if you wanted to add to the list you can add a New String with a value of the next incremental number (i.e. 1 if 0 is the only number listed). Then provide the correct value for the folder you want. For example my Unread Mail lives at “\\Mailbox- Taverna, Christopher C\search folders\Unread Mail”

Here’s a snap of the registry editor with the new value: