Latest TB update on Win11 and still every incoming email is marked as read when I have not opened it

Within the last 6 weeks I migrated to Win11. I migrated my apps that would work and Thunderbird also. Got a recent update of TB. Finally MOSTLY disabled the bloody awful thread thing in TB (seems to be folder specific??!). But ever since running on Win 11, I cannot stop TB from marking my messages as read even if I have never opened them. Even If I never use another device to connect with email. I try things and sometimes it works for like a day and then poof! : any email that comes in is read as per TB. It is killing me. I run my biz on email and if it is unread I give it low priority. But turns out it is marked read without any action from me. I get a LOT of emails. Really! I do no want to migrate to another email program. I am fluent with regedit and can hack a .ini file. Point me in the right direction please. help!