How do I prevent the preview pane from marking mail as read? Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003 are running in a domain. Windows XP. How can my users utilize the preview pane without having the mails marked as open? The HR manager needs to glance (preview) at 100 mails a day without losing track of their read or unread status. She wants to keep them marked as unread until she double-clicks them.