Not just annoying nor intrustive. Consider Malicious E-Cards – An Analysis of Spam In perhaps the most useful post I have ever seen on Slashdot, here’s a link the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article that lets you force email to be viewed as text ONLY: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307594. Bear in mind this might cause some problems. Make sure you document the changes you make and how to undo them, especially of the Windows Registry.