Michael Stumpf said:
That is one of the most incredibly annoying (among several) problems with XP. Anyone know why they did that?
1) If you're using IE, clean out your browser cache, and restart. Still, though, some random images will be saved in .bmp format by default. Why, I don't know ... MS probably claims it's a "feature."
2) Use Mozilla 1.2 (Win XP, Mac OS 10.2, Linux). It's really a better browser. I haven't switched yet, but when I use it (about 25% of the time), I like what I see; it's faster, more stable, and it has a built-in pop-up ad stopper that's far more effective than most other pop-up blocker programs I've seen.
Some advice when shrinking flags from FOTW - in your image editing program, convert them from "fixed color" or "256 color" to "RGB" or some setting involving 24-bit or 32-bit color. Shrink. The result will be far less pixellated. Save the image as a .gif .. 32 colors will do.