I was half way through grabbing some freebies today when for no apparent reason, instead of opening a save option my comp started downloading them immediatly to a temp folder and then opening up the zip prog. Im sure I never touched anything but I guess somehow some setting got changed. Any ideas? Its not the end of the world as I can still right click and "save target as" but it wories me when my PC starts thinking for itself.

That's an odd deal, have you installed any new things for your internet browser lately? Maybe a new unzipper? Any installs may have adjusted your settings. I'd go with what you said and just Right Click and Save Target As...

They may have been self executing files, I hate it when that happens....

Isn't there an option to check at winzip when it downloads, something like "always open a file like this"? or always "save a file like this"? I remember something like that once happened to me.

that happened to me once - i did accidently uncheck the "always ask" option. very frustrating. anyway, found an expanation of how to fix it for you - pasted below.

good luck

From: "Christy"
To: 1stpickpctips@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 10:14:09 -0500
"I was downloading a ZIP file and when IE asked me whether I
wanted to save the file to disk or open it from the current
location, I unchecked the box that says "Always ask before
downloading this type of file." I didn't know that meant that I
would no longer have a choice of saving the file or opening it.
Now that I
understand, I want to undo it. But how do I do that?"

To fix this problem, open any Explorer folder window and choose
Tools (or View) > Folder Options > File Types (older versions of
Windows may have a slightly different names or locations for
these menu items). In the File Types window, scroll to the end
and click the "ZIP" or "WinZip" entry. If you installed a program
other than WinZip for handling ZIP programs, such as ZipMagic for
example, you would look up that program name. Under Windows 2000
and XP, the file type is listed by the extension instead of the
program's name, which makes more sense. Once you've selected the
proper Zip file entry, press Edit (in Win9x) or Advanced in Win
XP. Place a check mark beside "Confirm open after download."
That'll do it.

Thanks to all who answered but expecially to Brodiss for such a complete answer. That did it. I use Ultimate zip and I suppose I might have inadvertently clicked on something while d/ling the previous file. Anyway, all solved and it just goes to confirm my suspicions that my PC is haunted. Thanks again.

It's also dangerous to have zips open without being able to scan for any bugs. I do hope you have a good antivirus Sam. 8) Catlin