Joe -

In Internet Explorer, if you click on Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, and scroll down near the bottom to Microsoft VM, you can probably get by with clearing all the check boxes there and it may help get rid of some of this behavior.

I'm not sure I've got the whole dope on what all it does, and I'm told you may run into an occasional site that won't display everything if you don't permit "Virtual Machine," - but it hasn't been a problem for me since someone suggested this change.

I've heard of this behavior also if you let them dump MSN Explorer (NOT NOT! NOT!! NOT!!! the same thing as Internet Explorer) on you. Latest versions of MSN-E apparently force you to use html email - and prevent you from accessing POP3 - just a rumor, 'cause they won't tell you what it does until they've done it to you.

John