kathryn:
One point about MailWasher: In order for it to be most effective, you need to make sure you start it first, BEFORE you open your email client (Outlook Express, in your case). You should have (you can do this by clicking on Tools > Options) MailWasher set to open OE after you process your emails (booting and deleting all the spam).
The Pro version, available at
http://www.firetrust.com/?PHPSESSID=...e67a86e710ae28 offers additional configurations (which I needed for my DSL service, with my particular ISP) and a year's worth of support and upgrades. Their support staff is really outstanding, by the way.
The free version, which you have, may suit you just fine if you aren't a power emailer (I have 10 email accounts for various purposes...don't laugh

).
CyRus:
I downloaded and tried out Spam Inspector; it looks like a great product, but I really prefer MailWasher's separate utility. It's probably because I'm so used to it, and, since I was there when they were still "little guys", I get lifetime support and upgrades - I won't have to re-up after a year. They've really been super people to deal with.
If I didn't already have MailWasher Pro, I'd be really happy with Spam Inspector. Thanks for the link.
Rose 