What kind of animations are they? Animated Gifs, flash, avi's? Where are you saving them from, Photoshop, a web page or some other graphics program?

Try this ,its a copy /past from another site .

The solution has been posted here at least 2 times already. Apparently no one reads: Go into TOOLS/INTERNET OPTIONS/ADVANCED Scroll to bottom and see SECURITY. Make sure to CHECK MARK "Do Not save encrypted pages to disk" Hit APPLY It will work. I had the same problem for months. You can now SAVE AS the format the image is in. The default BMP was Microsofts way of forcing you to use their pathetic standard of 256 color images. But it can be corrected

also, the images I try to save are mostly smileys, or just backgrounds, things from graphics sites.

Thanks again and I'll post back if that doesn't work.

I went into the Tools/InternetOption/Advanced and checked that box.

Some of the smileys are giving the .gif save as file type but the rest are still giving .bmp.

Is there a way to just disable .bmp?

This is frustrating because anything that saves at .bmp has a white background around it plus it does not have the animation.

I did not have this problem with Windows 98

check this out

http://www.ozzu.com/viewtopic.php?p=5013

Here's the information straight out of the Microsoft knowledge base:

SUMMARY

When you save an image in Microsoft Internet Explorer, the image is saved by default as a bitmap (.bmp). You do not have the option to save the image by using an extension other than .bmp. You experience this behavior even when the image uses a different format (such as .gif or .jpeg).

For example, when you right-click an image on a Web page, and then click Save Picture As, the file name that appears in the File name box is Untitled, and the file type that appears in the Save as type box is Bitmap (*.bmp).

CAUSE

This behavior may occur if a damaged program file (for example, an ActiveX or Java object) is downloaded to the SystemRoot\Downloaded Program Files folder on your hard disk.

RESOLUTION

To troubleshoot and resolve this behavior, empty the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder, and then delete the files in the Downloaded Program Files folder that are listed as either Unknown or Damaged. To do so:

1. Start Internet Explorer (if it is not already started).
2. Empty the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder. To do so:
   1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
   2. Click the General tab.
   3. Under Temporary Internet files, click Delete Files.
   4. When you are prompted to delete all temporary Internet files, click OK.
3. In the Downloaded Program Files folder on your hard disk, remove the files that are listed as either Unknown or Damaged. To do so:
   1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
   2. Click the General tab.
   3. Under Temporary Internet files, click Settings.
   4. Click View Objects.
      
      The list of program files that are downloaded to the SystemRootDownloaded Program Files folder on your hard disk appears in the Downloaded Program Files window.
   5. In the Status column, note the files that are listed as either Unknown or Damaged. Remove these files. To do so, right-click the file, and then click Remove.
   6. When you are prompted to confirm the removal, click Yes.
   7. Close the Downloaded Program Files window, and then click OK two times.
4. Save an image in Internet Explorer to test and determine if the issue is resolved.
   
   If the issue continues to occur after you remove all downloaded program files that are listed as Unknown or Damaged, try removing the other downloaded program files that are on the list.
   
   Note: The next time that you need one of the files that you removed from the Downloaded Program Files folder, you will receive a prompt to download the file to your hard disk in Internet Explorer.

ive done wat it said and it lets me save some as gifs but it still mostly says that bmp thing

is there anything else i can do??

rename the files to .gif

The above solutions worked for me - thanks!