There is a long-time known defect in Outlook (2002 and, I think, 2000)
where the rules do not execute on the *first* scheduled mail poll. When
you configure scheduling, you select an interval time, like 5 minutes,
at which to perform automatic mail polls. However, this also means a
mail poll occurs at the zeroeth minute (i.e., while Outlook is loading).
Outlook really isn't ready and the rules don't get exercised against
messages pulled on the first mail poll that occurs when Outlook is
loaded. Yeah, it sucks, and you'd think Microsoft would have a patch
for it by now but they seem to prefer to ignore that the problem exists
as evidenced by the lack of a fix in the last 2 or more years that I've
experiencd this defect. Would also be nice if they fixed the other
problem of outlook.exe hanging (even with NO plug-ins) during its close
so you didn't get stuck with a remnant in memory that not only affects
later loads of Outlook and other Office components but can also screw up
Windows, too.
The solutions equally suck. You have to disable scheduled mail polling
and instead continually remember to hit F9 or use the menus or toolbar
buttons to manually perform the mail polls. Or you manually use the Run
Now function in the Rules Wizard. You can add a Run Rules Now button on
the toolbar to manually force a Run Now of all rules when (not if) the
first scheduled mail poll when Outlook is loading fails to exercise the
rules. The problem with using the toolbar button is that you must
select each rule to run. It doesn't preselect all the rules (that are
already enabled). It doesn't have a quick select checkbox or button to
select all the already enabled rules. You cannot hit Ctrl-A to select
them all. If you have lots of rules, it is a real pain having to select
them all. God forbid Microsoft considers ease of use. Another solution
is to keep Outlook loaded all the time so you don't care about the
first-poll no-rules problem. Whether or not that works for you depends
on if you feel Outlook is stable *enough* to leave it running all the
time.
