Adding to DA's comment -- I too found the Arcsoft site which used/uses .phb files that may be album files. Here's a quote from Arcsoft: PHB files are proprietary album files used by some of our programs, namely PhotoBase. Albums do not store your images. They serve as links to files stored on your computer or removable drive. If you delete the original file, the thumbnail in the album basically becomes a dead link. For example, if you have files on a floppy disk and create an album, you'll always need to have that floppy in the drive whenever you want to view the full images. Likewise, if you have a digital camera that is read as a removable drive, you would need to have it connected if you create the album directly from the camera. The best thing to do is copy all of your images into a folder on your computer, *then* create the album referencing those files. Albums are useful because they let you preview and organize files on your system in a convenient fashion. It is also from albums that slide shows are made with some of our programs." They still offer ($) software that may be able to translate your pics to jpeg or they have some free help. Some of their software can be downloaded for trials which might enable copying to jpeg. Here is a link that might be useful: Arcsoft

Bob - Good Grief is right. But it's probably not as bad as it sounds. One of the problems is that before I found this forum a year ago (and had some sense of saving files to the appropriate place), not only did my husband and I just save files (with no regard to where they were being placed) - we also had 2 different computer guys help at various times - and I've discovered that one of them took it upon himself to set up some folders and put items there (he set up a Lynn's documents) when he transferred data from one computer to another. Now I can see why he set up my own folder (since my husband and I shared a computer in those days) - but he never told me he was doing that- so lo and behold - I have an entire Lynn's documents folder that I never use but contains some of my older files. yeah - I guess it's a lot to sort. Personally, your method makes sense to me - just set up folders in the C drive for the categories I'm interested in. I'm now the only one on my computer - so I don't think I need a "my documents" folder (and certainly not a separate "Lynn's documents" folder). I am so glad to have found this forum and decided to get mastery and comprehension of my computer. Having professionals set things up - but not bother telling you what and why they did things - just complicates everything. And the pictures are also a mess bc. this helpful computer guy put picasa on my pc - which grabbed every picture - so that many pictures appear in picasa and elsewhere. It's the picture finding and organizing that seems the most daunting. Videos and music I've done myself in the past year - no one else has touched it but me. Word files are manageable too. BP - my question about the Tivo files is that I want to sit in my living room, have Tivo search my computer to see what's on it. That's what I'm thinking has to be in the Tivo desktop program. When I'm at my computer, I think I can find the videos anywhere - I'm just thinking that no matter where they came from (Tivo desktop, hulu, my camcorder, edited in Videoredo), that I might somehow have to move them all to My Tivo Recordings folder in order to access it using the Tivo and watching tv. Do I have that right? Jemdandy - that's one interesting way to approach the 2 drives - one for programs and one for data files. But then I'd be backing up data files to yet another place. I have a 500GB hard drive and am thinking of adding a second 1TB hard drive. So both drives have lots of room. Except for video files, I would think my c drive could easily handle my programs and data files (music, documents and pictures) - and the software and those files could be on the c drive and backed up to the second internal drive. Is there a reason - in terms of improved performance, etc - to use the c drive only for software? Does that add an extra step if I want to use one of my software programs (say photo editing) and have to go to the other drive to get the actual photos to work on? Or is it just as quick to run a program on one drive and get the data from the other? [Okay - good grief, it is]. Thanks everyone. Lynn.

I think we have been jumping back and forth between specifics of my particular post and questions posted in general. I don't have enough experience in this computer forum to really add anything to any general discussion beyond my own personal, very minor experiences, so I will go back to the specifics of my post and my own situation. In the past, when I was a Windows PC user, I was an intermittent visitor to a number of computer forums, not this one very often, because of low traffic here, but all the forums had very friendly people who were generous with their time and expertise and seemed happy to help. Since switching to an Apple computer, I have barely stepped foot in a computer forum. I have not needed to. My laptop just works 90% of the time and when it doesn't, I have a 3 yr tech support policy in place. Something I've had with every computer I've ever had since I first started getting on the computer in 1995. It has been a big relief, because maintaining a computer and straightening out technical problems even with help was a very frustrating task that I never enjoyed. It always felt like a 'big black hole' of wasted time when some issue would present itself. Even with an 'expert' to help figure it out, you'd never know how many hours you'd have to take away from whatever task you were trying to do, to stop and figure out why the computer wasn't responding right, 'again'. Or how many days your computer would not be working. Even with a tech support policy, I might call and get the wrong information and no fix with two techs, and have to call back again and then a third tech might know just what the problem was and fixed it in about 10 minutes. So, even though I was less technically literate, it seemed like even among the technically literate, there were a lot of people who seemed as confused as I was. I always tried to understand what I needed to know. Always tried to find out what I could do using the computer that would be preventative and avoid problems. It didn’t seem to matter, tech problems always seemed to present themselves regardless. So again, I can’t even express how relieved I’ve been not to have that experience with my computer any more. My husband has a windows based computer with Vista on it and I don’t even want to touch it. Which brings me to my thread that seems to have triggered this discussion. I wasn’t even asking for help with a problem with my computer. I had already been working with my own situation for 3 days and taken steps to resolve it not only with GW but with my own Apple tech support. I was not satisfied with the responses or information that I was getting from either about whether this ‘downloaded file’ was a problem or not. That was why I posted here. And from the information that ravencajun offered, it would seem that I had reason to remain concerned about the ‘possibility’ that it could be a problem and one I wanted to take steps to avoid in the future. Even if the file that was downloaded onto my computer was not a problem, it might have been. So, what was it about my thread that has caused a negative response? What did I do or say that was wrong? I’m still here defending my thread, why? Have I even done any of the things that some of you are expressing you have a problem with? I was very appreciative for the help ravencajun gave me and I even tried to smooth over my initial response to Mike, even though I still think he was wrong in both content and attitude in his response to me, I was more than willing to give him a break and overlook it. At this point, I am at a loss to understand how what seemed like a simple question has resulted in my feeling like I have to defend myself for asking it and now defending all people who come to forums and ask questions. That doesn't seem right to me.

I have Malwarebytes on every computer I own and will never be without it (call me Over Cautious). Elmer is right, I shouldn't need Malwarebytes, but I do have it on my computers and do run it about once a week. Malwarebytes has never let me down! I can't say the same for Norton's, had trouble with Norton's not catching a Virus many, many years ago. Norton's has been doing a great job for me the last 10 years or so though! As I stated above, I do run Malwarebytes about once a week (Manually) and it picks up a few Norton's doesn't consider harmful. I trust Malwarebytes! I do use the Free Version. When Downloading the Definitions just be careful not to press Upgrade, always press Update, that is unless you want to purchase Malwarebytes. Again Elmer is right, I believe Cox does offer the Security Suite, w/McAfee, he post about above! If you have any questions in this matter I'd contact Cox to verify it's included with you package and where it can be downloaded from safely! We have Comcast & Frontier in our area. Comcast offers Norton's Security Suite for up to 5 Devices (use to be 7 devices) even on the Low End Internet Service at $19.99 a month. Frontier offers F-Secure for their Internet Service (not sure on details for Frontier). Most ISP's don't want their customers getting Viruses and Malware making their internet experience unbearable. They also know how important it is that everyone is running a Reputable Up-to-Date Anti-Virus Program on their Desktop Computer, Laptop, Tablet and Cellular Devices. This is why they are including these as part of your package!