• Download MarkDeletedRead - 774.14 KB
• Download Setup - 371.71 KB

Introduction 

In this article I will cover creating a simple Outlook Add-In as well as the setup project to get it installed. 

Background  

It has always driven me crazy have that  little number next to my Deleted Items telling me that I have unread mail.  I finally got fed up and created this little Outlook Add-In to make sure that anything I move to the Deleted Items also gets marked as read.

That is why I created the Add-In, I'm writing this article mostly to share the plugin, but also to show what I learned about writing Add-Ins for Outlook or more aptly installers for Outlook Add-Ins. 

Using the code 

The code for marking items as deleted is actually very simple.  First we need to create a new project and choose "Outlook 2010 Add-In" as the project type.

Then expand the "Outlook" group, and open the "ThisAddIn.cs".  In the ThisAddIn_Startup method we are going to add an event handler 

Outlook.MAPIFolder deletedFolder = this.Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderDeletedItems);
deletedFolder.Items.ItemAdd += new Outlook.ItemsEvents_ItemAddEventHandler(DeletedItems_ItemAdd); 

Then in the event handler we just mark the item as read.  I check for a number of other item types as well in the provided source, but they all look essentially like this: 

if(Item is Outlook.MailItem)
{
	(Item as Outlook.MailItem).UnRead = false;
}
		

That's it.  Close Outlook and click the run button and the debugger will open Outlook with the Add-In running.  You can test it out and verify that it is marking things as read when you send them to Deleted Items. 

Installing the Add-In 

First we need to create a new setup project.

Once you've created the setup project switch to Release and rebuild the solution.  

If you click on the setup project in the Solution Explorer and you you'll see a series of tools of buttons at the top of the Solution Explorer.  We'll be using the File System Editor and the Registry Editor. 

File System Editor 

In the file system editor we are going to right click on the Application Folder to add a few 3 things.

Project Output->Primary Output 

File->MarkDeletedItemsRead.dll.manifest (from the bin\release folder) 

File->MarkDeletedItemsRead.vsto (from the bin\release folder)

Registry Editor 

05/10/11 - Initial release