Create filter (email rule) in Hotmail / Outlook.com

Create mail filters for your Hotmail account

Outlook.com supports basic email rules (aka "mail filters") to automate filling messages, forwarding them to another email address, even deleting them while bypassing the Deleted folder (definitely not a rule you should use!), automatically assigning or removing a category from matched messages, or flagging them. Use filters in conjunction with Hotmail's other automation tools, including your configurable Spam settings, blocking senders and domains, and convenience tools like "Instant Actions" (buttons to quickly move your emails to predetermined folders) - this tutorial also shows you how to temporarily disable rules you no longer need, and how to delete them (which cannot be undone).

Quick Steps to setup mail filters in Outlook.com:

1 Login and go to your inbox.
2 Click on the gear icon (top right), and choose Manage rules.
3 Click New to create a new filter.
4 Configure the filter's conditions, and its action(s).
5 Click Create rule to add it to your account.
6 Click on the trash icon to delete existing rules.
7 Click on the Outlook.com logo to return to your inbox.

1) Setup the matching rule for your mail filter

Configure Hotmail / Outlook.com account settings First, log into your Hotmail account; from your inbox, click on the Settings button (gear icon in top right corner), and choose "Options" from the dropdown menu. On the next page, click on the "Rules for sorting new messages" link (fourth link under the last section on the right, "Customizing Outlook.com").

Match incoming messages with your mail filter Then, click on the New button to add a rule.

You'll end up on a screen that starts by collecting the criteria to match the target messages; click on the first dropdown menu, and one of five pieces of information:

With "Sender's address", you can match parts of - or the entire sender's email address. If you subscribe to multiple newsletters from the same website (i.e., same domain name), you could type "@example.com" in the text field, and pick "ends with" in the second dropdown. (But in that scenario, the filter would also affect emails sent by people whose address ends that way!)
"Sender's name" matches the "From" display name. But it's better to match email addresses for two reasons: first, the From name can contain typos or be entered differently in different email programs / webmail providers (e.g., by only sometimes including a middle initial). Second, for female senders, the last name often changes when they get married.
Choosing "To or Cc line" (the main recipients and blind-carbon-copied recipients) lets you filter a message based on the people to whom it was sent. This criterion is especially useful for email rules that move mass-emails to a specific folder. (Example: if a message was sent to the "Marketing Department" distribution list, move it to my "Read Later" email folder.)
For rules that filter based on email title (subject line), choose "Subject" from the dropdown, and type a partial-to-full sentence to match - note that the match is not case-sensitive.
Finally, pick the single-option "Message has attachments" to automatically filter all emails that contain any kind of file attachment - if you ever create an email rule this vague, make sure to regularly check the folder in which matched messages are moved!

Note: images embedded in the message body ("Base64 encoding"), or by referencing online pictures within the body, do not have attachments, and won't be filtered by such a mail rule.

2) Create an action for your email rule

Now that you've determined which messages to match, let's define how to handle them. Under "What action do you want to apply?" Hotmail lets you pick between one of five types of actions:

To move the message to a folder, click on the dropdown arrow next to "Move to", and pick an existing folder.

The second option lets you create a new folder to which matched emails will be moved. Select "Move to a new folder", and type the folder name in the text box. (The folder will be created only once - this is just designed to save from the step of going back to your inbox to create the new folder and losing your work!)
We recommend that you never use the "Delete these messages - don't even put them in my Deleted folder" action. You never know if the condition you've setup in Step 1 will ever match a message you did not intend to match! If you absolutely want to automatically delete the message, choose instead the first option, and choose to move to the email to the Junk folder, or a newly created folder you'll call (for example) "Temporarily Deleted". Keep in mind that the content of the Junk folder is automatically emptied every 10 days!
Select "Add category" and pick one to be automatically applied to the matched messages. You can create custom categories in the main Options screen (click on the "Manage categories" link, in the last section). Categories are like "live folders" (what Gmail calls "labels"). Notice the next option: you can make the filter remove a category. This targets categories that Outlook.com automatically detects and applies, like "Shipping updates" or "Social updates".
"Flag automatically applies a flagged status to the matched emails. This rule is one of the most useful because of its flexibility: viewing all flagged emails is only a click away, and leaves you control over what to do next - moving, deleting, or leaving alone the email in question!
To automatically forward the matched message to another email account, select "Forward to" (only one address is allowed, unfortunately - you'll get the "Email addresses need to be in the following format: name@example.com" error message otherwise, and won't be able to create your rule.)
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Tip: then, Microsoft will show the "Please sign in at least once every 365 days - otherwise your account looks inactive and could be deleted" message. Once your username is inactive, it becomes available for any new user who signs up!
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3) Save your new rule

When you are done, click on the blue Save button at the bottom: if there is no problem with your matching criteria or action, Hotmail will redirect you to the main Rules for sorting messages screen, where you'll find your new rule (automatically named!). Click on the Outlook.com logo in the top left corner of the page to return to your inbox, or click New to setup another filter. New Outlook.com mail filter successfully created!

Temporarily disable an email rule

Temporarily deactivate mail filters You don't necessarily need to delete an email rule when you no longer need it! Just click on the Edit link next to it in the main Rules screen, and change the condition to something unmatchable - like setting the sender's name to gibberish :) Once you want to reactivate the filter, just replace the matching condition with the original one, and save the change!

Permanently delete a mail filter

Permanently remove email rules To delete a filter, check its checkbox, and click on the Delete button: it will be removed from the list, and messages it matched will simply go to your inbox. Messages it already moved will not be affected (they'll stay wherever they currently are).

The checkbox over the blue background lets you select all rules with a single click - be careful that it's not checked when you click on the Delete button!

 Tip: you now know how to access your mail filters from the Options screen. Here's another (quick!) way to view your email rules from any other page. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner, and choose "Manage rules" from the dropdown menu - you'll land straight on your filter listing!

Create super-powerful filters, with more conditions and actions

Advanced email filters in Microsoft Outlook Hotmail's webmail client (the web-browser-based version of Outlook.com) keeps things simple when it comes to filters. But you have many more filters at your disposal when using a desktop email program like Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live Mail / Outlook Express, Mac Mail, Thunderbird, etc. You just need to setup your Outlook.com email account, as IMAP, with the Hotmail server settings. This would allow you all kinds of new actions, whose limits are set by your desktop email program, and no longer by Outlook.com!

Advanced actions in (for example) Microsoft Outlook

Outlook 2010 To give you an idea, here are some of the actions available in Outlook 2007 / 2010 / 2013: move message to a folder, assign category, clear category, move to trash, permanently delete, automatically reply to a message (like a vacation reply), copy the message to a folder, forward the message, forward message as attachment, flag or unflag messages, assign an importance (aka priority level), automatically print the message (!), play a sound, automatically start a desktop application, automatically mark the message as read, run a script, etc. As you can tell, the possibilities are truly amazing! Keep that in mind before handling mail with Yahoo Mail's own filters. And remember that this is most useful when using IMAP.