This post 2 Steps to Auto Mark Junk Emails as Read is a godsend. At my job I get a ton of unsolicited commercial email (UCE). After I black list the domains of the companies that SPAM me, I still get distracted when new emails arrive because it makes the Junk Mail folder bold and a count gets incremented.
This article shows you how to silence both the count of unread emails and also automatically mark new junk emails as read. You’ll never be distracted by unwanted SPAM again!
The Managing Developer 