Mark all emails as Read in Hotmail (inbox or other email folders)
HotmailUniversity
Windows Live Hotmail users across the globe use the "Unread" status of an email message differently: for some, it is truly an indication that an email was never opened to be read; for many, however, this is used as a to-do list of sorts, and a reminder that some email message needs to be acted upon: following the "getting things done" model, that particular email should be filed, deleted, generate an action, or be delegated (you can manually mark an email as Unread in Hotmail). In this tutorial, we will explain how to mark all emails as unread inside a particular folder, either your inbox, or any other standard or custom email folders.
Mark all messages as Read in your Hotmail account
First, start by navigating to the email folder whose entire content you want marked as Read. Once you are inside that folder, you can manually click on each unread email to mark is as Read, but to do it en masse, here's the trick: click on the "Sweep" menu (newly introduced in the latest version of the Windows Live Hotmail webmail service), and choose "Mark this folder as read" from the dropdown menu:
As soon as you do, Hotmail will proceed with marking every email message in that folder as Read (emails that were already marked as Read will not be affected).
Hotmail Tip: you can always tell that there are unread email messages inside a Hotmail folder, and how many of these there are, in two ways. First, if the name of the email folder in question is in bold letters, it means that the folder contains at least one unread email message. Second, a number will be displayed between parentheses, and it indicates the current number of unread emails in that folder:
The "Drafts" folder, where unsent emails are saved, is a special case of a system folder: Hotmail.com will always show the number of messages it contains, as a reminder that you may need to finish composing them, and send them!