My Pictures folder strange behavior PLEASE HELP

[Guest]

Somehow HP has configured the version of XP that comes with their laptop Pavillion zd7000 so that opening the My Pictures folder doesn't display the contents of My Pictures in an Explorer window. Instead it opens a program HP Image Zone which displays the folder contents. Is there a way to change this back to the ordinary behavior

To make matters worse HP Image Zone doesn't even function correctly. It is therefore impossible to open the My Pictures formula. I just get an error message. The only work around is to create a copy of My Pictures with a different name which then behaves like a normal folder. Fixing Image Zone would be one way to solve this, but I would prefer to simply get My Pictures to function as it does on other XP systems

Another possible clue as to what HP has done to screw up the operation of this folder is this. I tried deleting My Pictures. According to numerous sources in the Microsoft support area and elsewhere, XP will regenerate the My Pictures folder on reboot. It didn't in my case. When I manually recreated a My Pictures folder, that folder showed the same symptoms as the original, i.e. attempting to open it resulted in an error message when trying to start Image Zone

This is really annoying and HP will not help. Can anyone please offer some suggestions?

 

[Yves Alarie]

I am not sure this will solve the problem with this computer but is easy
enough to try.
Open the folder to see the names or thumbnails of the files.
Right click on one of them and click on Open with on the opening menu. A
window will open. Click on choose program. A window will open. Select
Pictures and Fax viewer and check the box "Always open.."

Somehow HP has configured the version of XP that comes with their laptop

Pavillion zd7000 so that opening the My Pictures folder doesn't display the
contents of My Pictures in an Explorer window. Instead it opens a program HP
Image Zone which displays the folder contents. Is there a way to change this
back to the ordinary behavior?

To make matters worse HP Image Zone doesn't even function correctly. It is

therefore impossible to open the My Pictures formula. I just get an error
message. The only work around is to create a copy of My Pictures with a
different name which then behaves like a normal folder. Fixing Image Zone
would be one way to solve this, but I would prefer to simply get My Pictures
to function as it does on other XP systems.

Another possible clue as to what HP has done to screw up the operation of

this folder is this. I tried deleting My Pictures. According to numerous
sources in the Microsoft support area and elsewhere, XP will regenerate the
My Pictures folder on reboot. It didn't in my case. When I manually
recreated a My Pictures folder, that folder showed the same symptoms as the
original, i.e. attempting to open it resulted in an error message when
trying to start Image Zone.

This is really annoying and HP will not help. Can anyone please offer some

suggestions?

 

[Yves Alarie]

I get you.
Any chance of uninstalling Image Zone from Add/Remove programs?

Thanks for the reply. I can't do as you suggest because as of now I can't

open the My Pictures folder. Even if I right click it and then choose
Explore, it tries to start Image Zone which then crashes with an error
message. In any case changing the file action for one of the files in the
folder isn't likely to change the action taken when opening the folder.