I have a bit of a problem. I don't know what I did, but all of a sudden, for some strange reason, I can't download stuff off of IE. Lets say I click on a link in Internet Explorer to a .zip file.

Instead of asking me to choose a location of where I should download it to, it automatically opens a "downloading" dialog box, and quickly downloads to *somewhere*, then automatically closes, never letting me see where it downloaded to. I tried doing a search multiple times to no avail.

I have "Notify when downloads complete" checked off in IE advanced preferences, but it doesn't

I can, however, right click a link and choose Save Targe As, but that gets sorta annoying.

Any ideas?

P.S. I'm using WinXP

what ie ver?

IE6 SP1

Just noticed this started happening recently. I don't know if I did anything or not.

since this just started happening, rather than me attempting to track down a possibly non-existent solution, how about restoring defaults (IE/ Tools/ Internet Options/ Advanced/ click "Restore Defaults" & click "Apply") &/or resetting web settings (IE/ Tools/ Internet Options/ Programs/ click Reset Web Settings, then uncheck "Reset Homepage" & click "OK"), and let me know if that helps?

ok, i'm guessing the above hasn't worked for you - have you checked both your Internet and Intranet security settings?

Yeap, trying to "restore defaults" is one of the first things I did when I noticed the problem. By looking quickly, I notice that when I try to download something, the "DOWNLOAD TO:" thing says "downloading to temporary files directory" or something along those lines. I can also see it's somewhere within C:\Documents and Settings ... but the rest of the path name is cut off.

I have tried to do a search multiple times but nothing ever comes up

I don't know if this will help but try running Lavasoft's Ad-aware program. I don't think it is a setting inside ie.

i see u mentioned restoring defaults, but what the more likely resolution of reseting web settings?

try right clickng a file link, notate the file name, then left click to have IE download the file & search sys for filename to find where it goes - at least at this point u should know where the files are being saved even tho that doesnt actually solve the prob

if u ftp thru IE & download a file does the same thing happen?

You couldn't imagine how many times I've done this! I'll download a file (making note of its name). And do a search for it. And I come up empty each time! It's like it's "pretending" to download ... I don't know

Might be easier to simply reinstall IE.