18th September 2000

Today's Sponsor The Active Desktop is an active pain in the [insert expletive here]. Whereas I used to be able to drag and drop GIFs, JPGs, and PNGs directly from Internet Explorer to my Desktop, I now have to take an alternative route to avoid the annoying "Do you want to add an Active Desktop item to your desktop" message. Yes, I could remove Active Desktop functionality altogether, but that would render other shell features inoperable. So, instead of dropping onto the Desktop, I simply drop the image into a folder (or folder shortcut). The graphic (and my sanity) is saved. Here's another method: drag & drop the non-hyperlinked Web graphic into your Outlook 2000 or Outlook Express Inbox to automatically 'attach' it to a new mail message, then drag & drop the image's icon onto your Desktop. You may then close the "unused" message. Crisis averted. NOTE: this second technique can also be used to create 'local' message attachments in a jiffy. Read: existing documents.