Show only Unread emails in Hotmail (hide already Read messages)
HotmailUniversity
When you login to your Hotmail account, and go to your inbox, unread emails will quickly be visible because they are shown in bold letters; read messages use a regular font-weight ("normal"). This allows you to quickly get to emails you have not yet read; since you can also manually mark emails as Unread, this is a useful way of making important emails stand out, whether you have already actually read them or not. In this tutorial, we will explain the next step, an introduction to the latest version of Windows Live Hotmail, called "active views" or "quick views", which allow you to filter out emails matching a certain condition with a single mouse click. In our case, we'll show you how to filter out and show only Unread emails in your Hotmail account. Note that this trick works for the inbox and any other email folder.
How to filter out Unread messages
Once you are inside your inbox or other folder in your Hotmail account, look at the toolbar (filled with text links), that appears between the current folder name and the email listing: these are some of the active view filters at your disposal.
By default, the "All" link is shown in bold text: when "All" is bold, no filter is currently placed on your email folder, and all messages it contains are displayed.
Now click on the "Unread" link, second from the left: as soon as you do, Hotmail will apply the filter and show only email currently marked as Unread, whether they are truly unread, or your changed their status to Unread yourself:
In addition to seeing the "Unread" filter now marked in bold letters, notice that the folder name has been updated: in our case, it now reads "Inbox > Unread", and the folder name will of course vary based on which is currently loaded on screen.
Why do I see Read messages when I filtered to see Unread emails only?
As you go through Unread emails, Hotmail will mark them as Read when you switch to another message. For efficiency's sake, as well as enhanced usability, Hotmail will not refresh the filter and hide messages you just read; instead, it behaves as usual. If you click on another folder and go back to your inbox, you'll see that all messages you have read (and not marked as Unread subsequently), remain so. If you want to hide emails that have become "Read" since then, click once more on the "Unread" filter at the top, and Hotmail will then reload the content of the filter!
Go back to showing both Read and Unread
As mentioned earlier, going to another email folder and then back to the one where you filtered out Read messages, will clear the filter, and you'll be looking at all messages in that folder. But you can also click on the "All" link in the toolbar, and Hotmail will go back to displaying all messages (without requiring a "trip" to another folder).
Tip: when you apply an Active View filter to a Hotmail folder, it will not change anything - it is only a filtered view of the same content, and nothing else changes.