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Maybe these articles will shed some light:

Go to the following site and scroll
down to the bottom of the page.
"Music, Video, and Photos"
http://tinyurl.com/7g4k

(810978) Internet Explorer Saves Images As
Bitmaps (.bmp Files
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=810978

(326675) "No Preview Available" and "File
Format Is Not Supported" Error Messages
Occur When You Try to View Graphic Files
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326675

(260650) Internet Explorer Does Not Save
Graphics Files in the Proper Format
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260650

(324761) Cannot Save Images in Windows
XP As JPG
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=324761

more choice but downloading as bmp. what options do i have
to change to download pics in jpg-format?

driving me crazy, what's worse is I can't find any service
on the net to help me figure it out, I'm sure it's a
simple solution.  Have you received an answer yet?  It
would have been great just to read their reply to you.  
Please let me lnow if you hear of anything.  Thanx, Polly

more choice but downloading as bmp. what options do i
have to change to download pics in jpg-format?

Unfortunately, nobody seems to know the answer to this. I
myself use a program called PhotoFinish 4.0, which I
bought for only $5.00 but beats Adobe Photodeluxe and MGI
Photo Suite by MILES. First I open the BMP file, then I
convert it to 256 colors. Then I must re-convert it to 24
bit color before saving it as a JPEG or else the pic will
be saved in gray scale. Sounds like a lot of work, but
this is the only way I have found so far. You should be
able to accomplish this with any photo software you may
have but if not, you can buy PhotoFinish from
http://www.thelearningcompany.com