Filters produce odd results

After using Windows Live Mail Desktop for about six months I'm compelled to
report that the filters produce odd results. I had previously used the same
logic, keywords, email addresses for filters in Outlook Express and Outlook
2003 so I'm have some experience setting them up with the same email senders
and email accounts.

The basic problem is the filters send stuff randomly to different folders.
The incoming emails are not going to the folders specified in the filters.
There doesn't seem to be a reason for this problem. Any ideas what's causing
this?

The other problem is the overly aggressive spam and phishing filters which
tag important stuff as spam or worse even at the lowest settings. I'm
tempted to just turn them off.

This might happen if more than one filter would be triggered for a mail
item. For example, if you have one filter to store email in a folder if it
comes from someone named "Scott" and another filter to store the email in a
different folder if the email comes from "@microsoft.com" and a third filter
to store move it to junkmail if somewhere in the body it has the word
"Vista" in it.
Now what happens when you receive an email from a person Scott who works at
Microsoft and he's sending you an email about Windows Vista? Which one of
the rules should be triggered?
The only way (as far as I know) to get around this is to carefully check
each filter you have and make sure that none of them overlap. There doesn't
seem to be a priority set (The move up/Move down buttons don't actually
appear to do anything when filters are applied. This has been bugged).

Colin Brown
WL MVP

"djysrv" <djysrv@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3CD607A2-0B84-4B0C-A1BF-D396CBF845DD@xxxxxx

Thanks for your reply. These filters were scrubbed for these issues when used
in Outlook 2003. I re-entered them by hand into Windows Live Desktop as it
does not import rules from other applications. If it does I missed that
fearure :-(

What I've done today is to use the Export feature to move my mail back to
Outlook 2003 using the "Exchange " target from the Export dialog box, and put
all my email into the Outlook 2003 inbox. Then I ran all my filters in
Outlook 2003. They all worked and did not produce the strange behavior I
encountered in Windows Live Desktop.

Here are some example of the mixups. The filters get confused most
frequently among rules where one rule uses an email address and the other
rule uses a keyword. The rules that experience the most mix ups are those
which are keyed to a specific word string in the content of the message. I've
tried to limit these to "statistically improbable" combinations, but perhaps
I've been outsmarted by the software :-)

One other issue that is worth attention is that when you choose to run a
rule, the dialog box defaults to "storage folders" instead of "inbox"

BTW: these issues do not apply to Hotmail as the server side takes care of
rules that put incoming email into specific folders.

I suspect, as you explained, that the rules engine is finding that multiple
rules apply and does its best. I agree that having a priority for rules,
e.g., use this one first, then second, etc., would help with this issue.

Regards, Dan

"Colin Brown WLMVP" wrote:

Rules are supposedly applied in the order listed. I wasn't aware that WLM
has a bug in that process.
Also, each rule is supposed to be terminated by "Stop processing more
rules." This means that the first condition finding a match will cause that
message to undergo the stated action rather than continuing to look for
other matches with subsequent rules.
--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (WLMail)


"Colin Brown WLMVP" <Hackersoft1@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:4DDC0257-19D0-48BD-B179-2A574B309156@xxxxxx

Regret to report that the rules do not terminate after the first instance.
Instead, they continue until ALL instances of possible cases are processed.

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote:

If anyone else has found that "Stop processing more rules" doesn't
work in WLM, I'd like to hear about it. That would be a major bug.

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (WLMail)


"djysrv" <djysrv@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:FD5499F9-5E3B-4806-BD3D-40453B8D0A03@xxxxxx

djysrv never said that Stop processing is part of the rules.
--
Ronald Sommer

"Gary VanderMolen" <gary@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OZRIS2XqIHA.672@xxxxxx

His response to my bringing that up:

"Regret to report that the rules do not terminate after the first instance.
Instead, they continue until ALL instances of possible cases are processed"

is indeed open to interpretation.
If he's not using the 'Stop' action, it is no wonder he is getting odd results.
--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (WLMail)


"Ron Sommer" <rsommer@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:%23WJe0XbqIHA.5416@xxxxxx

Me too. I wasn't aware of any bug in this area either. I wonder if
the rules import mechanism (new to later versions of the installer?)
is a bit flaky and somehow mucks up the system.
Rules are enumerated at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live
Mail\Rules\Mail, and the first value under that key gives the order
in which they are applied - which is vital to effective filtering.
Without having tried to break that, I can just confirm that my rules
work exactly as intended.
--
Noel

"Gary VanderMolen" <gary@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OZRIS2XqIHA.672@xxxxxx

I've come across issues with this and have bugrepped it through connect.
Hence my initial response. I've seen that exact behavior.

Colin Brown
WL MVP

"Gary VanderMolen" <gary@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OZRIS2XqIHA.672@xxxxxx