Spam is any email or otherwise web based information that wasn’t solicited for. Just opening an email account today isn’t enough. Advertisers, spammers and scrupulous websites love blasting users with unnecessary emails trying to get them to click on ads, banners and unknowingly download Trojans, viruses and much more. A Spam filter helps check emails before they enter the computer, categorize and quarantine mails that appear to be spams. Based on algorithms and particular criteria a spam filter for windows classifies emails and groups them together into various headings. They are also great for classifying incoming email based on priority basis.
1. MailWasher Free
Get rid of spam and any incoming viruses through e-mails to your computer with MailWasher. This software lets you preview all your emails even before they are downloaded from the server to your computer thus preventing possible phishing attacks, viruses and spam. Delete whatever seems funny to you and let the legit emails come through. It also helps in detecting and deleting specific viruses and some worms. The latest edition comes with a better layout, HTML display and mobile version too.
- Our Rating:
- Download MailWasher Free
- Home Page
- Pros: Simple, intuitive and dependable spam filter
- Cons: Upgrades are not free, inbuilt advertisement banners
- OS: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7
2. Spamihilator
The Spamihilator is a spam buster that acts as a screen between your computer and your email server, sorting the spam, scanning all incoming mails and learning along the way to ensure complete protection for IMAP and POP3 accounts. A brand new installation requires a bit of help in understanding what constitutes a spam for you and after a few trial runs, it automatically learns spam settings of your own choice and filters subsequent mails accordingly. All filtered mails are sent to the trash can of your email client and the rest is rerouted to your POP3 or IMAP interface such as Thunderbird.
- Our Rating:
- Download Spamihilator
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- Pros: Stops almost all spam, totally free, no hidden charges
- Cons: Hard to understand the settings a bit, POP3 support isn’t great
- OS: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP/Vista/7/8
3. POPFile
A simple and intuitive interface reminiscent of the old Windows 98 times greets users providing them with all necessary gadgets and gizmos to fight off spamware. Automatic email classification is what POPfile is all about. It does this auto filtering using Bayesian mathematics and works great with POP3 emails and uses a web based interface. Initially, it needs a lot of learning but over time, it grows and becomes self sustaining, knowing when and where to place which incoming mail.
- Our Rating:
- Download POPFile
- Home Page
- Pros: Simple interface, quick learner, dependable software
- Cons: Installation is a bit tricky, takes time to teach it your choice of categorization
- OS: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP/Vista/7
4. K9
K9 is a free internet spam filter that provides plenty of customization options using a web based control panel. Total of 50 categories helps organize websites, your email categories and more. It even learns your preferences as you work more with it. Great for a complete internet security system, it also acts as a decent email spam filter before emails enter your computer.
- Our Rating:
- Download K9
- Home Page
- Pros: Free complete package, lots of configurations
- Cons: Takes time getting used to, needs internet access for security suite to work
- OS: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP/7
5. Spamato
Spamato is an IMAP and POP accounts filter for spam that otherwise filters inside the computer. It has a high precision in picking up spam content and comes as plug-ins for various open source platforms as well as Outlook. A plethora of options lets users configure it exactly as they want the spam filter to operate. This is a standalone proxy email spam filter but works only as a add-on on specific platforms.
- Our Rating:
- Download Spamato
- Home Page
- Pros: Easy add-on interface needs no web access
- Cons: Multitude of options can be confusing
- OS: NT, 2000, XP, Vista,7
