Techies

[EK01]

Hi guys,

Question for the computer buffs (of which I am not one). If someone on the forum sends a jpeg, I only have to click on it, then click on it again to open it and I see the picture. However, if someone sends a gif, I have to save it first into 'My Documents' then go there and click on it to open it and see the picture. Is this the normal way that it is meant to work or am I doing somthing wrong and missing out a shortcut.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,
Ian

[Andy Frost]

Ian, it sounds like you have lost the program association for gif files, in other words your computer doesn't know which program to use to open these files with. You don't say which operating system you are using but in WindowsXP you can right-click on one of your gif files in 'My Documents', select Properties and you should see an "Opens with:" line which should say "Internet Explorer". If it doesn't then click on the Change button and select Internet Explorer from the list that appears. I'm not sure how this looks in Vista but I expect that it is much the same. Leave jpeg files on whatever they are set on, which on my WinXP system is "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" although jpeg links open for me in Internet Explorer.

[EK01]

Andy,
Thanks for your assistance.
Unfortunately I am using the dreaded Vista system. However, it would appear to work in much the same way as XP but something is not quite right. I have followed your instructions and right-clicked on one of the gif files in 'My Documents' and scrolled down and selected Properties. A box appears and within the box there is the line 'Opens with' and next to it , it does say 'Internet Explorer'. Therefore all should be well but for some reason it is not recognising this. I tried a few goes with the 'Change' button alongside but it makes no difference. It just seems strange that jpeg files are being recognised by Internet Explorer and opening straight up but with gif files, I am having to save into 'My Documents' first,

Ian

[tarbat]

I get the same problem.  And when a GIF attachment is included in the thread, it takes forever to scroll down the page.  My associations are okay as well.

Vista, with IE8.

[EK01]

Tarbat,

At least it's not just me then. I am sure this never happened before. I will put it down to the Vista operating system which seems to have a mind of it's own.

Incidentally, your gif image shown above, when I go through the usual palaver (technical word) produces just a blank.

I take it, like me, you have no problems with opening up jpegs directly ?

Ian

[Andy Frost]

Hmmmm, not so easy then. Perhaps an association between Internet Explorer and gif files that's been lost from the registry at a guess.

What happens if you find a gif file on the forum, right-click and do "copy shortcut" and then paste that into the internet explorer address bar? Does that give you an "Open/Save" dialog which then opens the image in the browser in a new tab if you click Open? As a test I've used the gif file on the first post in "Advice for a loft antenna". http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=3254.0

tarbat, is your giftest.gif a blank image? When I click on it I get a new tab opened with a blank page and
C:\Documents and Settings\Andy\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\JP8NDEND\giftest[1].gif displayed in the address bar.

I've found a page that claims it will restore Vista associations for various files. There's an entry for gifs. I'm not suggesting you run this straight off, but if you save the '.reg' file for gif, rename it to '.txt' then you can compare with your own registry entries. Ian this is probably not for you if you're not a "computer buff" as you put it, tarbat, I think you'll be familiar with examining the registry, right?

The registry entries that appear to relate to gifs and Internet Explorer are:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\giffile\shell\Open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe\" -nohome"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\giffile\shell\Open\ddeexec]
@="\"file:%1\",,-1,,,,,"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\giffile\shell\Open\ddeexec\application]
@="IExplore"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\giffile\shell\Open\ddeexec\topic]
@="WWW_OpenURL"

Oh, and just for completeness, http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm restores default associations for XP.

[tarbat]

Looks like this is an IE8 problem.  If I use Firefox, I see the GIF images correctly, and I don't get the slow scrolling.

I've also checked, and all the registry settings are correct.

It only appears to affect BIG gif images.  The small one I attached as a test shows okay.  But this one doesn't.

[EMA]

I had this issue with IE7 so use Firefox.

[Andy Frost]

This would indeed seem to be a Vista problem associated with IE7 and IE8 (see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistaie/thread/2c8dbf2b-c34b-4a5e-b996-b8a3c7fe1f2f). One way to make sure...instead of viewing gifs on this forum, go to Google, click on Images in the top left and search for something fairly common, e.g. "books". You'll get a mixture of jpegs and gifs. See which ones open and which don't then repeat the process with another browser such as FireFox or Chrome. With the Advanced Image Search you can also specify image size in case it is related to the size.

(just as an aside I can now see tarbat's first gif, a small red square, which strangely enough wasn't appearing for me before, although it was correctly opening a new tab..I'm using XP).

[EK01]

Andy and others,

Thanks for all your help on this one. I think I will just stick with the method I am currently using for gif files of saving into 'My Documents' and opening from there. As you say I am not a computer buff and don't want to muck up anything else.

But here is a strange one. Andy, the exact same thing which happened to you with regard to the gif sent by Tarbat happened to me. When I checked it yesterday there was nothing there, now when I look there is a red square logo which also appears when opened via saving into 'My Documents' first.

Ian

[Andy Frost]

ok Ian, fair enough. Strange that I now see tarbat's first test gif (100x100) in the text above as a small image which I didn't before, and as you say there is now something visible behind the link. The 800x600 test gif doesn't appear in the text above as an image but opens without problems for me.

[malc41]

Roll on Windows 7

[tarbat]

Roll on Windows 7

I get exactly the same problem with IE8 in Windows 7 (running in VMWare).  I don't have Firefox installed on the Windows 7 installation, but I might try that later.

EDIT: Installed Firefox, and that displays GIFs perfectly in Windows 7.  This definately looks like an IE8 problem.

[EK01]

Tarbat,

Do you know of any free programs whereby any bugs in IE8 which may be causing the gif problem and possibly other faults can be fixed. I did go into google and entered IE8 but there are hundreds of reference pages. Just wondered if you had come across anything which is any good or been recommended or is it best just to wait for something more concrete to come out. Such as a brick !

Cheers,
Ian

[tarbat]

So, I've narrowed it down to being a problem with IE8 and GIF attachments, where the GIF attachment isn't a direct link to the image.

The GIF attachments on this forum are in the format:
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3256.0;attach=4544

Whereas normally links to a GIF would have the format:
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist/33-books.gif

Maybe this is some sort of security measure to prevent GIFs being download via a non-GIF link.