Can't View JPEGs in Windows Explore Because of QuickTime Picture Viewer

Question

A couple of weeks ago I had some film developed in our local drug store. I had the photos put on a CD. The CD came with its own software and you had to install the software in order to view or take off the photos. I wanted to use my own editing software program to edit my photos so I copied the photos to a folder on my HD. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that all my JPEG files had been turned into QuickTime Picture files. Not just the ones that I took off the CD, but every JPEG file on my hard drive--over a 1000! I did what you usually do whenever you want to change an association for a file in WD 98--I right clicked on a JPEG file and chose the option that said always open these type files with ACDSee, the photo editing program I wanted to use for my photos. All this did was to allow me to open all my JPEG files into my favorite photo editing program, but still would not allow me to view my JPEGs in the Windows Preview pane on the left of my screen in Windows Explorer! When you have as many JPEGs as I do, even if they are all organized and labeled, you still need to be able to view the thumbnails in Windows Explorer so that you won't have to open up every photo to see what it looks like. There is no way you can remember what every photo looks like when you have that many files even with them all labeled. I went in to the Preference option in Quick Time and unchecked every thing that had to do with still photos. But it did not help. I right clicked on every folder and checked the option that says View Thumbnails. I went into the Folder Options in Windows Explorer and tried every folder option that was offered and none of it solved the problem. I have searched the knowledge base on MS web site and could not find an answer. I have posted this problem in numerous Tech bulletins and no one can figure out how to solve this problem. I checked my Program's list and I also noticed that I had something there listed right under Quick Time that said "Quick Time for Windows" and don't remember ever seeing that before and don't know if that has anything to do with my problem or not. My Quick Time version is: 6.5.2. The "Quick Time for Windows" is not listed in my ADD/REMOVE program. I am so totally frustrated after working on this problem for 2 weeks, almost 8 hours a day, that I am about to uninstall Quick Time just to see if that will solve this problem. I would hate to do that, and that is why I joined this forum before I perform such a drastic measure. I figured that since this forum is all about Quick Time, someone here will know the answer. I have to leave the house for a little while but will check back here when I get back home and see if anyone has posted here. Thank you in advance for any help that you offer.
Sheila
PC Windows 98 Pent lll, 500--RAM 256-Firefox-AVG
  Windows 98   Pent lll, 500--RAM 256

Answer 1

Well, it seem no one here knows the answer to my problem either. I appreciate all the people who have looked at my problem even though they did not know the answer either. Because no one on the Internet seems to know how to solve this problem, then I am going to have my husband reformat my hard drive and then I know for sure the problem will go away.
I probably should do that anyway since I have never had to reformat my hard drive since I got it 8 years ago. I always said if something is not broke, why fix it and now it finally seems to be "broke", so I might as well clean it up as well as fix it. Thanks to everyone who looked at my problem.
Sheila