I have tried to help a few friends that use the Kodak software - and to me - it is a mess! Confusing for sure!

I use Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006. I use it to download my pictures, organize them, edit them, and also to digital scrapbook.

It has so many features, but is still easy for the beginner to use. I have tried many photo editing software packages, and still go back to Digital Image Suite. Although Adobe is a great photo editing program, the MS Digital Image Suite is MUCH easier to use, and I can do the same things.

You can find DIS (Digital Image Suite) on eBay for under $35 or less.

To add to iowagirl2006'post about Microsoft Digital Image Suite, I heard on the Kim Komando show Saturday that Microsoft was ceasing production and support of this and that you might find it on clearance.

Yep - that is a bummer too, but you can find it really cheap, and I think at some stores after a rebate, it is free!

Microsoft drops Digital Image Suite

I not sure exactly what you are trying to do. I'm thinking you could find your pictures in Kodak EasyShare, click Edit\Select All, right click a photo\copy, then go find My Documents\My Pictures and paste them. At least you would know the photos are in My Photos.
You don't need EasyShare to transfer photos from camera to computer. Most advise against installing software that comes with a camera.
Once you get all the photos removed from Kodak EasyShare, you can go to the control panel and remove the program.

PhotoBucket is just an online place to store photos.

Don't know what the zig-zag is, and have no idea about a window that says to restore them or whatever or the little picture of a "lost" one.

Anyway, I think you're going to need to learn how to transfer photos from camera to computer (if this is what you're trying to do) without using third party software, because they'll save them in hard to find places.

If you're looking for a photo editing program, read this recent thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo editing programs

Perhaps the zig zag lines are to do with low resolution photos. You should right click on any photo and click Properties. This will tell you and anything less than 640 x 480 could well produce the dreaded jaggies when blown up to a larger size. Also if you click on Summary and then Advanced it might tell you the camera and settings used plus you can 'write' on your photo here with a name and any comments you want to add for future reference.

For photo editing you might consider taking all your photos at the highest possible settings on the camera to give you a good start. You can always reduce them to email etc but trying to increase a smaller photo never works successfully in my mind

Kodak is a mess!

To organize your photos take a look at the free ware Picasa. It automatically finds and catalogs all the photos in your computer and organizes by date. It will help you find them via thumbnails.

I have Photoshop and if you want to really do some serious editing, it's one of the best. If you want to resize, change the contrast, lighten, darken, do a little touch up with a simple clone tool get Serif PhotoPlus 6. It is by far the easiest and best. And it's free. Very easy to use. I use it a lot instead of Photoshop because it is very fast. Just remember, to save photos with the Serif program use the 'export' feature and choose the .jpg format.

Thank you all for helping out. Bean, I happened onto Picasa several weeks ago and loved it. Then I forgot the name and didn't think to bookmark it. When you posted the name I remembered it and downloaded it immediately and I absolutely love it! It is so easy to use, especially for those of us who are not photo experts and only want to lighten, sharpen, etc. Oh, and it "found" my pictures Kodak said were missing and that had the horrid zig-zag down the middle.

It's just great and I would encourage anyone to get it. I dumped EasyShare and I highly recommend Picasa. Thanks again. Now I can really enjoy my pictures.