Exchange Server's Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) assigns a value called a Spam Confidence Level (SCL) to all messages it processes.
Until now, the only way to expose the Exchange IMF SCL was through a custom form. The disadvantage of this method is that it has to be set on every installation of Microsoft Outlook on which it's used.
The custom form method also doesn't allow rules processing on a Microsoft Outlook client using the SCL values. And, if you want to expose the SCL to all Microsoft Outlook clients, regardless of where they are, there's no easy way to do it.
Exchange Server programmer Victor Ivanidzehas has created an unsupported freeware plug-in called ShowSCL (for Exchange Server 2003 and up only) that simplifies the SCL display process.
The ShowSCL plug-in allows you to add the SCL score for a message as part of the default message categories. It can also be configured for individual mailboxes or on an entire store by default.
The only changes needed on the Microsoft Outlook client is to add the Categories field to a given view. Once this is done, you can create rules to process incoming messages by their SCL score. (The SCL score is added as a message category.)
Note that you will need to be the owner of any mailboxes for which you attempt to set up ShowSCL. In addition, the Exchange Server administrator does not have mailbox permissions by default. The documentation for the plug-in has details on how to set this up properly and safely.
About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter.
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Related information from SearchExchange.com:
Tip: How to display IMF's SCL rankings in Outlook using a custom form
Tip: Configuring Microsoft Outlook to display Sender ID information
Crash Course: Exchange Intelligent Message Filter
Learning Center: The spamfighter's toolbox
Learning Guide: How to fight spam on Exchange Server
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