Photographers: Windows XP SP3 Can Corrupt TIFF Images

This is a little obscure, but it could be very important information for the really serious photographers in BATW:

“Microsoft has warned users of Windows XP Service Pack 3 of an issue that can lead to digital pictures becoming corrupted when handled with the default image viewers available as components of the operating system. According to the Redmond company the problem is limited to XP SP3. Microsoft has explained that when using Windows Picture or Fax Viewer to manage TIFF images, in the eventuality that a specific picture is rotated either clockwise or counterclockwise, that document will become corrupted. . . .

“A hotfix is available for this specific issue, but affected customers will have to contact Microsoft in order to get it. ‘This problem only occurs to a TIFF document that is compressed in CCITT Group 3 format with 2D encoding. This problem does not occur if the TIFF document is set to read-only. When you use the Copy to feature in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to save another copy of the TIFF document, the saved copy is also corrupted. However, the original file is not affected,’ Microsoft said.”

For more information, check out:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-XP-SP3-Can-Corrupt-TIFF-Images-115830.shtml
and
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970922/