Mary - the virus is normally contained in an attachment, and you can delete suspect mail before it does damage.

You can also change the way Outlook views mail so that it isn't opened automatically. Go into 'View' and uncheck 'Preview Pane'. Now you only see the headers.

Outlook Express is similar, but more fiddly... 'View' - 'Layout' - then uncheck 'Preview Pane'.

Hope that's of some help!

B