Michael Tsai’s must-have shareware program, SpamSieve, has just been updated to version 2.9.2. The new version, a 10 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and improvements:

- Improved compatibility with the forthcoming OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

- The recommended condition for the Apple Mail rule is now Every Message rather than Message Type Is Mail. SpamSieve will auto-update your rules at launch on OS X 10.7 if Mail is running.
SpamSieve is better at detecting a certain type of tricky spam message.

- Worked around an OS bug that prevented SpamSieve from properly analyzing some message attachments.

- False negative files now have the .eml extension so that they work with Quick Look, etc.

- The Setting Up a Spam Filtering Drone section of the manual has been updated with simpler instructions for Apple Mail and new instructions for setting up a drone using Microsoft Outlook 2011.

- Added the Using a Spam Mailbox on the Server section of the manual (for Apple Mail).

- Updated various graphics for retina displays.

- If the Apple Mail plug-in cannot be installed due to a folder ownership problem, SpamSieve will now ask for an administrator password to try to fix the folder for you.

- Reverted to version 1.2.3 of the Growl SDK to avoid problems with high CPU usage, internal errors, and crashes.

- Improved SpamSieve’s reporting of unexpected errors as well as script errors from Apple Mail.

- SpamSieve no longer responds at all to certain invalid commands. This should work around an OS bug that could lead to crashes.

- The crash reporter can now make recommendations for you based on the contents of the crash log.

- Added a link to the forum in the Help menu.

SpamSieve is available for a US$30 registration fee and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run. The new version can either be downloaded directly from the web site or brought up to the current version via the program’s built-in update feature.

If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us know in the comments.