Installation

NOTE! Spammunition is brand new and currently in the beta stages. It works well for me, but there is no guarantee that it will work for you. Please use this at your own risk.

Another Note: Version 0.64 instructions are the same as 0.61.

1) Download the Spammunition EXE file.
2) Close outlook and any outlook windows that are open.
3) Important: If you have a previous version of Spammunition installed, go to Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel and UNINSTALL it. This is very important!
4) Run Spammunition0.64Beta.exe. This will begin the install process.
5) Choose an installation directory and follow through the prompts until it's finished.
6) Start outlook.
7) Outlook will start, and you'll be prompted with an installation dialog box, illustrated below.

8) In the bottom box of the dialog, click "Browse or Create Folders" to choose the folder you wish to store your spam in. You can create a new folder here for your spam if you like.
9) Click OK.
10) You're Finished! Now read on to find out how to use the program.

Short Conceptual Overview Of How Spammunition Works
In a nutshell, Spammunition filters out incoming spam by analyzing existing mail that you classify as "real" email and mail that you classify as spam. After studying all this, the program is able to accurately guess whether any new mail you receive is real mail, or spam. If it's spam, it automatically places it your spam folder.

Usage Instructions
After installing, you'll see the Spammunition toolbar. It looks like this:

Spammunition uses one designated folder to store and examine spam. You chose this folder in the Spammunition setup screen. You can change this folder if you like - on the Spammunition Toolbar, choose Tools | Settings.

By default, the program is set to only analyze the contents of your inbox for real mail. However, you can have Spammunition analyze any folders you want for your real email. You can choose as many as you like. To modify which folders the program uses to analyze real mail, choose Tools | Settings on the Spammunition Toolbar. You can also change your default Inbox and Spam folder.

As you get new mail in your inbox, use the "Delete Spam" button to move any spam you get into the Spam folder. You can highlight multiple items and move them all at once if you want. Also, if you move real email into the Spam folder by accident, you can use the "Undelete Spam" button to move it back into the Inbox.

Note: You don't have to use these buttons if you don't want to - you can simply move the mail by right-clicking on mail and choosing Move to Folder if you want. The Delete Spam and Undelete Spam buttons are just shortcuts to do this.

Once you are finished moving all your spam, click the "Analyze Words" button .

A window, displayed below, will open which will show you the progress of the analysis. At this point, it's examining the contents of each email, and gathering data that will be used to analyze new mail as it arrives.

The program will churn through all the mail in the Spam folder and the real mail in whatever folders you specify, and store a list of the words used in both types of mail.

(NOTE: Once you are finished analyzing words, you must keep the spam in the spam folder. If you delete your spam, Spammunition won't "remember" what it analyzed previously. The next time you click "Analyze Words," it will start from scratch and simply scan through all the mail that it finds again. So don't delete your old spam. More spam = more accurate spam detection. Consequently, more normal email in your inbox = more accuracy.)

Once that's finished, Spammunition will load the words into memory, as illustrated in this window:

Now you're ready to filter some spam! Whenever new mail is received, Spammunition checks each one and determines whether or not it's spam. If it's spam, it is automatically moved into the Spam folder. If it's normal mail, it stays in the Inbox. It's a good idea to periodically check the Spam folder for real email that was misidentified. That's what a "false positive" is -- a real email that is falsely identified as spam. Typically, Spammunition gets very few false positives, and for me they are almost always website newsletters, which have a very spammy feel to them.

The more spam you get, the better Spammunition is at identifying it. As long as you keep normal mail in your real mail folders, and spam in your spam folder, it will work.

When you're first using Spammunition, it's a good idea to click the "Analyze Spam" button frequently to keep the spam filter up-to-date. It learns quickly, but the more spam it has to learn from, the better it performs.

One known bug is that Spammunition sometimes will skip certain pieces of new mail that are received. It's not too common. If it happens, you can manually start the process of hunting for spam in your Inbox by clicking the "Hunt Spam" button . This will move spam from the Inbox to the Spam folder. Note - this will only analyze UNREAD mail, not read mail. If you need to, you can always set mail to unread by right-clicking on it and choosing "Mark as Unread."

With version 0.60 and higher there is a detailed analysis screen. Click the "Show Analysis" button to view specifics about any email, including the internet headers, email text, the probabilities of each word being spam, and the overall probability of the email being spam. You can sort the word probability list on any column.

Also, there are two whitelists that you can use - an email address whitelist and a subject whitelist. These are pretty self-explanatory.

By the way, if at any point while using Spammunition you get any error messages, don't panic. Spammunition will just be disabled until you restart Outlook.

Good luck with the program! If you find any bugs, please report them to me. Thanks!

To Uninstall
(Note: The exact terminology varies with different versions of Windows, but you'll get the gist)
1) In your Windows Control Panel, choose Add/Remove Programs
2) Choose Spammunition and remove it
3) Spammunition is now removed from Outlook

Collins Canine

Chicago Dog Training

Sports News