Ian,

You don't seem to be very appreciative of sensible suggestions

I'm just not very appreciative of suggestions which do not show a path to
an(y) answer.

of which sending some of the problem pictures to someone for try under the
same conditions seems to me to be a perfect example.

In other words, you doubt - without stating a reason for it - my findings.
I find that offensive.

Besides, I've mentioned two by default with the OS installed programs (IE
and image and fax viewer) with which there is little to nothing I can have
done wrong (either a drag-and-drop or a double-click of the involved image)
that you would be able to do right.

So, what would your "test" of doing the same and getting the same results
prove ? Absolutily nothing.

The only thing that could happen is you getting a different result and,
after much squabbeling, realize that your version of either of the above
programs does not match what I'm using. And what would that have proven ?
Again, absolutily nothing.

It might help determining whether if something strange with the files, or
if it was your PC.

Or you could have just asked.

In that case I could have told you that several of those images go way back
over several OS versions (including DOS) and hardware, and several
re-installations of those versions, and I've noticed this "works in IE, but
not another program" before. I think I can quite confidently state that
its not my current PC.

Yes, its something "strange" with the files. Most likely a certain type of
encoding/compression thats not universially supported.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser