The clunky, no-frills interface of Pegasus Mail is reminiscent of an e-mail client of the mid-nineties. This free program frequently feels awkward, with underdeveloped features and a confusing interface.

Pegasus's small icons are not labeled in certain modes—such as when you are composing a new message. The send button is tiny and hard to find, and it actually disappears when you try to attach a file.

Pegasus isn't all bad, though. When composing messages, you can include message annotations and signature files that support Web links and images. And a handy series of check boxes lets you select options such as return receipt, copy to sent folder, and encrypt.

The address book provides only minimal features. Once again feeling outdated, Pegasus offers no fields for cell-phone numbers or home e-mail addresses. You can include images with address book records, but Pegasus doesn't automatically resize images, and this can result in records being inaccessible. The search feature is accurate, and you can search across multiple folders. But you can't search within attachments.

Pegasus has an impressive set of customizable rules for filtering incoming messages. The program also has built-in spam protection, though in testing it failed to block most of our spam.

Like Microsoft Outlook 2003, Pegasus does not automatically download remotely linked items, such as HTML graphics, in e-mail. You can selectively enable this ability for each message—better than the all-or-nothing approach in the other free client, Netscape 7.1 Mail. And the Selective Download lets you preview mail in your POP3 accounts before downloading them locally.