jpChris

Hi ianymaty, Thanks for the link. I guess I'll just have to accept that some icons show and some don't. Oh, well.

Hi ianymaty, My bad: I should have mentioned I'm running XP, and the link is for W7. I downloaded it anyway and checked what was in the tweak. It says "Photo Viewer." I'd have to change that to "shimgvw.dll", but I don't know about the rest of the registry values and as to whether it'll mung anything else up. I have noticed that if I change the ".ico" extension to ".cur", the picture of the icon shows what it is. And, if I change it to ".jpg" it'll open with win Pic & fax viewer. Also, in Folder Options | File Types, the ".cur" files don't have a program associated with them (same dealywad as in post 5), yet all the .cur files show what they are. Any way to get the .ico files to show what they are again?

Hi ianymaty, Nope. Neither Win Pic & Fax viewer, nor Paint, will open .ico files. there's a "box" (I don't know what ilt's called) in front of every icon file everywhere on my computer that has a slightly folded upper right corner and a small left-arrow and what appears to be a small dot next to the arrow: The attached is what they all look like. What is that box called?

Hi Lightning, I don't have any "weird file asociations" (although I understand how that could be), just the normal OOB ones. Aren't icons supposed to display what they are? I know cursors do. Also, what program opens .ico files? Win Pic & Fax viewer nor Paint opens them.

Hi all, I don't know how, but, IMGBurn changed and became the "default" opener for my icon and cursor files. I was able to get my cursor files back (through Folder Options | File Types) but all my icon files don't show the picture of the icons. How do I reset it so IMGBurn isn't the "default" for my icons? I went to the registry tab and unchecked everything, but no joy.

Hi cornholio7 (I can't believe there were 6 before you ), Thanks for the reassurance. Another forum I used to belong to wasn't too secure and I was getting hundreds of spams a week. Thanks, again.

OK. But, how did the spammer get our addresses to begin with???

Hi all, Geez, I *hate* having to learn the hard way! First off, when I put a movie DVD in the drive, Windows asks to "please insert a disk". That's just using the standard WXP drivers. And, when I right click on the DVD drive, it shows as being "0" in size. Second, mmalves wrote: "If you want to read the contents of a DVD (i.e. showing what files/folders are inside, copying files, etc), Windows XP already does this and doesn't use (nor needs) codecs for that." WXP does not "read" a DVD. As I stated above, it asks to insert a disk in drive(X). Nor does MS supply a download for any decoders. They even say so on their site and they direct you to download any one of several decoders, at varying costs, to play a DVD. Also, the first time out when I burned the ".bkf" file in 'write' mode, it did it. I could physically see where the disk was written to. However, when I tried "Properties" it showed "0" and I got an error message saying Windows cannot read from this disk. . . may be using a format not compatible with Windows." So, I downloaded a MPEG-2 decoder anyway (even though you said it was unnecessary), and lo' and behold, I was able to read and play DVDs! Next, I tried to burn the same file again, using LIGHTNING UK!'s advice and using 'build' mode. It worked. But, I did notice a size difference between the original file size and what was on the disk, which I was finally able to see after installing the decoder. Is this normal? Thanks, jpChris

Hi all, My bad. I just found out I need a decoder for WXP to play\read a DVD. Imgburn is a very nice program and has an easy to use interface ? kinda like Nero. And, I'm not burning an ISO. A ".bkf" file is the Windows backup file for when you backup your computer (Start\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Backup). Now, does anyone know where I can get the MPEG2\decoder I need for free? Thanks, jpChris

Hi LIGHTNING UK!, Thanks for getting back to me. I realized after I re-read my post I didn't state it properly. After I burned the disk (by the by, a .bkf file is a Windows System backup file [for when I remember to backup]) when I put it in the drive, that's when it changed to CD Drive *and* when I clicked on properties, it showed there was nothing on the disk ? even though by eyeballing the disk I could see that it was written to. Does that help to clarify things? (I hope) Thanks, jpChris

Hi all, I have a Pioneer 16X, Dual Layer DVD/CD writer, model #: DVR-A08xl. It came with ULEAD software with about a terabyte more crud than I wanted. All I wanted was to be able to burn data disks; that's all. Pioneer Support told me that it was the whole disk with the stuff I didn't want ? or nothing. I couldn't just install the burning software. I downloaded IMGBurn and burned what I wanted (nice program, by the way) which was a .bkf file. However, when I went into Windows Explorer (with the disk still in the DVD drive) to double check the size, I noticed that the drive had changed from DVD-RW to CD Drive. ?????? I contacted Microsoft and found out that I needed a MPEG-2 Decoder codex driver. So, I did a Google and downloaded from DeskShare the Mpeg2Decoder.exe. I installed it (clicked the .exe) and I'm still having the same problem. Obviously, I'm missing something\everything about how to add the codecs driver to my system. In Device Mangler, the drive shows the correct Mfg and Model #, and says this device is working properly. I even tried to update the driver, pointing to where the codecs is, and it said "file not found". Again, ?????? Can anyone please guide me on what to do? I'm stumped. OS: XP Pro SP1 Proc: AMD 3200+ Mem: 1GB PC3200 DDR2, Dual Channel. Thank you in advance. jpChris