The mystery began a few weeks ago… I was working away when all of a sudden, my computer (and a few around me) began beeping VERY loudly 3 times. This is no ordinary beep….. This is a VERY loud Machine BEEPING sound. Apparently we all received the same email in Outlook which was marked as High Importance or Urgent. The Mystery however was, WHERE did this new notification alert come from?
I began the search in my Outlook rules but quickly discovered that wasn’t it. I then remembered a new Outlook Add-on which was recently installed which integrated our Cisco Systems Phones/Voicemail with our Outlook client (Outlook 2003 or 2007) called Cisco Unity ViewMail. After some digging, I FOUND IT! The ViewMail Add-on for Outlook WAS the culprit!
So, to disable the ANNOYING 3 Beep Notification when your Outlook Client Receives a High Importance or Urgent Email, just follow the simples steps below:
1: In Microsoft Outlook, Click Tools, ViewMail Options
All shots taken from Vista Enterprise SP1 and Outlook 2007
2: Click Notification Tab, Uncheck Play urgent message sound, Click OK
All done! The annoying BEEPING has been BANISHED! VERY Groovy indeed!
Tags: outlook, cisco unity, beeping, viewmail, alert notification
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Thanks for this. I have been trying to figure this one out for a while. It really hurts your ears when you have headphones plugged into the PC/Laptop and have them on your ears. Notification now turned off.
Ouch!
Glad the article helped out! Welcome to the site Bryce! Thanks for the comment!
Anyway to disable the high importance option all together?
@ Gene - Welcome to the site!
If I understand your question correct, there is no “Setting” in Outlook 2003 or 2007 to disable the “High Importance” attribute assigned to emails however, there is a simple way to easily remove the High Importance attribute to emails you receive.
Simple create a new Outlook Rule - Click - Tools, Rules and Alerts, New Rule.
From there create a new rule that looks like the following:
Apply this rule after the message arrives:
marked as “High Importance”
mark it as “Normal Importance”
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the groove now Mr.Groove.
@Anthony - Your welcome! I’m glad the article helped you out!
Thanks a lot!!! This was really annoying, and MS Help was no help at all…
6.26.2008
I have Windows XP with Outlook 2007 where Tools/ViewMail Options is not available.
The solution for this is configuration is:
Tools/Options/Preferences Tab/EMail Options…/Message Handling/Advanced Email Options…/When New Items Arrive In My Inbox/Deselect “Play A Sound”.
Hope this helps.
Suzanne