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I use Outlook 2013 at work to remind me of meetings and appointments. However, when the reminder pops up, all that happens is the Outlook icon in the system tray glows orange:

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It doesn't blink or anything, just changes colors. About 50% of the time I miss this. Is there anything I can do to make these alerts more obvious? Some sort of balloon popup? Every time Windows needs to download a security patch, it won't let me hear the end of it; but it decides to be super timid about telling me I have an important phone call in five minutes. In Outlook Options->Advanced, I did see a Show Reminders checkbox:

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And there is a reminder, I just have to click on the glowly orangeness to actually see it.

Plug-ins or third party add-ons would also be acceptable. Thanks!

Update:

I upgraded to Office 2016 Pro, and the behavior is still the same. Keeping Outlook non-minimized also doesn't help, since the reminders won't automatically pop up on top of other windows. I don't see any new settings related to popups or notifications in this version either.

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  • This isn't normal behavior. Normal behavior is to provide a notification window, even if outlook is minimized, are you on a domain by chance? You should get a notification bubble for all emails does that happen?
    – Ramhound
    Jan 22, 2016 at 17:52
  • @Ramhound - I am on a domain, yes. And yea, I think this only repros when Outlook itself is minimized. I prefer to keep it minimized if possible.
    – Mike Christensen
    Jan 22, 2016 at 17:54
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    I am on a domain myself. I also have Office 2016 linked to a personal Exchange account. In both cases the default setting is a notification window to remind me about events that are happening and to display a notification bubble when I receive an email. Windows 10 in both cases.
    – Ramhound
    Jan 22, 2016 at 17:56
  • I can upgrade to a newer version of Office, since we have an MSDN subscription here. Was just wondering if there was a way to get Outlook 2013 working the way I'd expect.
    – Mike Christensen
    Jan 22, 2016 at 17:58
  • @Ramhound - Downloading Office 2016 now :)
    – Mike Christensen
    Jan 22, 2016 at 18:01

3 Answers 3

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I'm trying out SureAlerts, an expensive add-on that does what I want: pops the reminder in front. I also added a longer alarm sound within Outlook itself.

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This is easy to fix in Outlook 365.

  1. In Outlook go to File > Options > Advanced.

  2. Under the "Reminders" section, click the checkbox "Show reminders on top of other windows".

  3. Click OK to save the change.

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I have also found the Advanced settings not to work on all installations of windows and outlook. One work around that I have used is to change the sound file for "Play Reminder Sound:" in the dialog that you showed to something that lasts several seconds. I admit that this also has drawbacks since it can also be annoying, but it is harder to ignore.

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