Microsoft has released a free update for Outlook 2003’s junk email filter. Says the Microsoft site, “This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail.”

As built-in email client-native junk filters go, Outlook 2003’s was already pretty good.

In fact, here is an excerpt covering Windows 2003’s anti-spam features from How to Stop Spam, for Windows Users:

“Windows users who are using Outlook 2003 already have some pretty good tools for dealing with unwanted junk email. Outlook 2003 has a built-in junk filter, safe senders list, blocked senders list, and safe recipients list. While these are set at the lowest levels of junk email protection by default, they can be tweaked and trained by the user to become quite effective.

To change the general level of junk email protection in Outlook 2003:
1. On the Tools menu, select Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, in the Email section, click Junk Email.
3. Choose the level of junk email message protection you want. Your choices include no automatic spam detection and filtering, low and high levels of automatic spam detection and filtering, and the highest of all, where all email except that from people on your safe lists will be filtered as spam.
4. Choose whether you wish to have Outlook 2003 permanently delete suspected junk email instead of moving it to the Junk Email folder. We strongly recommend that you leave this option unchecked, as otherwise there is a chance that you will lose email that you actually want.
5. Click OK.

To add a sender to your Safe Senders List in Outlook 2003:
1. Right-click on a message from the sender.
2. Select Junk Email, and click Add Sender to Safe Senders List

To add a sender to your Blocked Senders List in Outlook 2003:
1. Right-click on a message from the sender.
2. Select Junk Email, and click Add Sender to Blocked Senders List.

To add a recipient to your Safe Recipients List in Outlook 2003:
1. Right-click on a message from the sender.
2. Select Junk Email, and click Add Recipient to Safe Recipients Lists.”

Also:

“Turning off image display in Outlook
Outlook 2002 does not allow you to turn off image display, but Outlook 2003 allows you to display HTML email without downloading the images, a step that can save you from being detected or infected by spammers.
1. Open the Tools menu.
2. Select Options.
3. Click on Security.
4. Click on “Change Automatic Download Settings.”
5. Check the box marked “Don’t download pictures or other content automatically in HTML email.”

Outlook will now display a small placeholder marker instead of any downloaded images. If you DO want to display a picture from a specific email, right click on the picture “placeholder” and select “Download Pictures.” ”