I'd like to make sure Reminders in Outlook 2010 actually pop up when they are fired.

I'm working on a cleaner implementation than the one discussed in the SE question [How to make Outlook Calendar reminders stay on top in Windows 7](https://superuser.com/questions/251963/how-to-make-outlook-calendar-reminders-stay-on-top-in-windows-7/462453#462453)

I'm having finicky results when calling the [`Activate`](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff869361(v=office.14).aspx) method, which should *activate an inspector window by bringing it to the foreground and setting keyboard focus.*

I'm calling `Activate` on what should be the Reminder Inspector item.  This is **not** an issue with calling [`Application.ActiveWindow`](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff865654(v=office.14).aspx), which returns *nothing if no Outlook explorer or inspector is open*, because I'm handling for nulls and displaying a message box in the event it can't find anything.



    'ensures all reminder notices receive focus
    Private Sub Application_Reminder(ByVal Item As Object)
        If TypeOf Item Is AppointmentItem Then
            If Not (Application.ActiveWindow Is Nothing) Then
                Dim myOutlook As Object
                Set myOutlook = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application")
                If myOutlook.ActiveWindow.WindowState = olMinimized Then
                    'This works fine
                    Application.ActiveExplorer.Activate
                Else
                    'This call won't set window ontop
                    Application.ActiveExplorer.Activate
                End If
            End If
        End If
    End Sub

When the code calls `Activate`, if outlook is minimized the activated window will be pulled to the front and receive focus, but if it's in open in the background it won't.

Do I really have no other option than to call user32 in order to set the z-index of the alert window?

Outlook Inspector.Activate Method Not Bringing Window To Foreground

Loop through all recipients in the `MailItem.Recipients` collection. For each recipient if the `Recipient.AddressEntry` property is not null, read the `AddressEntry.Members` property (returns AddressList object). If it is not null, recursively process each member of the list.

Like this:



    Private Function GetAllRecipients(ByVal mailItem As MailItem) As List(Of String)
        Dim allRecipients As New List(Of String)
        For Each rec As Recipient In mailItem.Recipients
            If rec.AddressEntry IsNot Nothing Then
                AddAddressEntryMembers(allRecipients, rec.AddressEntry)
            End If
        Next
        Return allRecipients.Distinct.ToList()
    End Function

    Private Sub AddAddressEntryMembers(ByRef allRecipients As List(Of String),
                                       ByVal addressEntry As AddressEntry)
        If addressEntry.Members Is Nothing Then
            allRecipients.Add(addressEntry.Address)
        Else
            For Each member As AddressEntry In addressEntry.Members
                AddAddressEntryMembers(allRecipients, member)
            Next
        End If
    End Sub

To get the number of recipients just call the return the list and call `Count`:



    Dim totalRecipients = GetAllRecipients(mailItem).Count()

I'm writing an Add-In for Outlook 2010 that should get the total number of people the recieving the email.

I can get the email property fairly easily with the following code:



    Dim mailItem As MailItem
    mailItem = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem

[`MailItem`][MailItem] exposes some properties like:

* [`MailItem.Recipients`][MailItem.Recipients]
* [`MailItem.To`][MailItem.To]

However, if the email is going out to a [contact group (formerly distribution lists)][group], `mailItem.Recipients.Count` will only return a value of `1`, even though multiple people will get the email.

Is there a way to query the total number of recipients within a contact group?

On some level it has to be possible, because Outlook will even do some of it for you:

![RecipientCount](http://i.imgur.com/wOVJS8r.png)


[MailItem]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/dn320330.aspx
[MailItem.Recipients]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff865320.aspx
[MailItem.To]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff860378.aspx

[group]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/create-and-edit-a-contact-group-formerly-distribution-lists-HA010354963.aspx