posted this same ? in beginners issue,also a beginner myself as far as PC knowledge and terminology. thats why I'm using this web.Anyway before moving we had MSN which provided our E/mail and there you could delete a E/mail before opening it.Now that we moved our IP is New North which is owned by Frontier and our E/mail (outlook express)automaticly opens when you click on the envelope icon and then you must hit delete and then it automatically opens the next one.Have had fears of a virus getting thru also(which I have no idea on how they work). Wondering if there's anything one can do to change this,so I can delete anything suspicious looking before opening. Although reading and hoping to learn from this sight this trash can get thru the best of you.Can anyone help! sorry for writing a letter but unable to explain simple. TY again Also if this is wrong sight to post this question let me know.Also one other thing comes to mind, when on vacation I might have come home to 150 E/Mails and with MSN I could look and click on say 125 of them and delete all of them at once,without opening.Probably should change my tittle from Eagle to "GET TO THE POINT OLD MAN" HAVE A GOOD DAY!

To open an email in Outlook Express, you have to double-click on it. The message that you see below your list of messages is called a preview on their program. No attachments (including viruses) can actually be opened and cause you to download any files until you double-click to open the message.

This can be changed! I am talking about the default setting. Change this setting from or back to the default by going to TOOLS, OPTIONS. Choose the READ tab. To be in the default setting I described above, make sure that "Automatically download message when viewing in the Preview Pane" is not checked.

"Have had fears of a virus getting thru also (which I have no idea on how they work)..."

MkStfnz answered your question concerning Outlook Express. I thought I would add a couple of things for your consideration.

First, here is how you can delete multiple email messages at once in Outlook Express.

Ctrl Key

1. Select a message you wish to delete in the Message Headers.
2. Press and hold the Ctrl key.
3. Select a second message you wish to delete.
4. Continue selecting messages to delete until you have selected all that you wish to delete.
5. Once all the messages that you wish to delete are selected, release the "Ctrl Key" and click the "Delete" button.
6. This procedure allows you to select messages in any order (non-sequentially).

Shift Key

1. Select the first message that you wish to delete, either at the top or bottom of the Message Header column.
2. Press and hold the "Shift Key".
3. Select the last message you wish to delete.
4. Release the "Shift key".
5. All messages will be selected between the first message selected and the last message selected (sequentially).
6. Press the "Delete" button.

About your Anti-Virus Program
Anti-Virus programs have to be kept up-to-date by frequently downloading new virus information. I update my Norton Anti-Virus on a daily basis.

These programs are designed to make this easy to do, but it does require that you open the program and click the "Live Update" (Norton Anti-Virus) or the "Update" button in McAfee Anti-Virus.

If you don't currently have an Anti-Virus program, I strongly suggest you get one soon. I would recommend the Norton Anti-Virus 2002 program. You can find this program at Wal-Mart's for about $40 US dollars.

You can read more about these two Anti-Virus programs here:

Click here for McAfee Anti-Virus

Click here for Norton Anti-Virus

Click the "Products" button, then the "Norton Anti-Virus 2002" link.

There are other anti-virus programs available also. You can look through the "Computer Virus Reports & Tips" to see what others are available.

I hope this will be of some help!

It's best to completely disable the preview pane. To do this, start Outlook Express, click View, Layout, clear the checkbox beside Show Preview Pane, then click Apply and OK.

You can also do the following: In Outlook Express click 'tools'- click 'options' - click 'read'. Change the "Mark message read after displaying for" box to a higher number of seconds. I had this problem so set mine to 15 seconds and this gives me plenty of time to either delete or block it once it is highlighted without it's opening.