Outlook 2010 Navigation Pane - Show Unread Count on Mailbox

I'm using Microsoft Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 64. I want the unread count of my mailboxes to show on the Navigation Pane, but on the mailbox, not on the folders. I like to keep my mailboxes compacted so when an email comes in I'd like it to be shown in the view of the screenshot:

enter image description here

My Google-fu has failed me, or this isn't a setting-option. I'd be willing to set up a macro that would do it upon application.open, but I'm unfamiliar with Outlook VBA. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Oh, an a screenshot that I made of what I'm looking for:

enter image description here

Oh, and I know that using favorites will do something like this for me, but I don't want to use that. I want it like this, if possible.

Raystafarian

Posted 2012-03-10T15:02:42.687

Reputation: 20 384

Does doing the opposite of [this thread] help ? (meaning setting "Get Folder Unread Count for Subscribed folders") – harrymc – 2012-03-12T18:58:05.927

@harrymc No, didn't seem to do what I wanted, but thanks for the suggestion! – Raystafarian – 2012-03-12T21:12:58.977

I will try to find some other solution. As my comment above was garbled, here is the correct link.

– harrymc – 2012-03-12T22:36:38.760

Answers

One "sort-of" solution is to first disable unread count in all folders, as described in:
Enable or disable Folder Unread count in Subscribed folders in MS Outlook 2010.

To get back the unread count, you would then create a Search Folder that aggregates all the emails of the folder and all its subfolders into a single view, modifying the Search Folder criteria to show only the unread items in that folder.

The following article might also be useful :
Refreshing unread counts for IMAP folders in Outlook 2007 or 2010

harrymc

Posted 2012-03-10T15:02:42.687

Reputation: 306 093

Appreciate the response. The second link is pretty amazing, definitely stuck with that. The first method will get all of my unread to a single place, but it's not the place that I want it, which is next to the mailbox. I would still need to put the search folders in my "favorites" to have them appear. I'm trying to not have to expand mailboxes to see unread. Thanks for the response and +1 just for that 2nd link! – Raystafarian – 2012-03-14T11:18:27.723

Do you mean the display order of folders ? One can always use a name that will put the search folder first in the sort order. – harrymc – 2012-03-14T20:59:35.310

Awarding the Bounty for effort – Raystafarian – 2012-03-18T17:57:41.040

Thanks, although I would have preferred for results. – harrymc – 2012-03-18T18:13:25.917

I'm thinking it's just not possible – Raystafarian – 2012-03-18T18:55:35.607