Where did the inbox go?

June 5, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Q. My new PC runs Outlook 2010 for email. I am having a problem with my inbox: It sometimes disappears, and I cannot find the email I’ve received that day or the day before.

Sometimes I can see all the mail I have received that day and in the past few days, but quite often after I send an email, my inbox will appear, but with no received messages in it.

I am a hoarder and like to keep most of my messages for at least a couple of weeks. Can you help?

A. It may go without saying, but when your messages disappear, first make sure that you’re actually looking at your inbox and not your “Unread mail” folder.

There are two other likely answers, according to Hal Hostetler, a broadcast engineer who posted on the forums at http://answers.microsoft.com:

If your messages frequently disappear after you have read them, you may have your Outlook set to show only unread messages in your inbox.

For this, click on the “View” tab, then “Change View,” and make sure “Unread Mail” is not selected.

You also could have an issue with your antivirus application.

According to Hostetler, McAfee’s email scanner is known to randomly delete messages.

Disabling the email scanner doesn’t help with either McAfee or Norton; the program must be uninstalled, then re-installed without the email scanner.

Hostetler advises that the easiest way to do this is to download and run McAfee’s Removal Tool (instructions at http://tinyurl.com/geeksmcafee) to completely uninstall the software, then re-install without the scanner.

APPS FOR KIDS

About a month ago, I wrote about iPad apps for preschoolers and younger.

A couple of readers wrote in with some suggestions that I’d like to share.

Kathy Lies of Goldsboro, N.C., writes that “by far the best app I have seen at all is called Sound Touch.”

This app offers pictures and sounds of 360 different objects, organized by type (animals, birds, vehicles, musical instruments and household items).

Kathy’s 2-year-old grandson has learned an array of instruments and can now identify them by sound when he’s listening to music.

The app, produced by Sound Touch Interactive, is $2.99.

For older kids, Dianne Dunlap suggests Teach2000, a freeware learning program that also has options of downloading to an iPad.

She uses it to create interactive quizzes for a first-grade class, including reading words, math and alphabetizing.

Options include flashcards, multiple choice, puzzles and even a game in which the child has to type the answer before the alien gets him or her.

The iPad app, miniTeach, also is free.

On a different note, Mary DeCoster with the Durham County Health Department asked me to pass along the message that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting screen time to less than two hours of quality programming per day.

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2011, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

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