Philywebrider, I think you misunderstood the point of my post, which was to reassure you that you don't need to worry about deleting the file because in XP there is a safe way to recover from any error you might create for yourself, if you back it up first - which is all you would do - back it up. If you are going to work in graphics (or do coding) you should be aware of how system restore works and how to use it because eventually you will need to know about it. This is as good a time as any to learn. JeffH said it was safe to delete the file in question, so . . . I've deleted several files the same as the one in question with no negative results. I won't vouch for what else may be going on on your computer, but simply deleting the thumbs.db file by itself won't harm your system. - TJ