Are there windows commands that let me do this???, I mean I know I can load a bitmap with windows functions but does windows have some functions that''ll change that BMP file to a JPG file??? I plan to create a little windpws program that''ll let u specify a directory to search for ".bmp" files and then select from an option of "convert selected file" or "convert all bitmaps", but the problem is can I use windows to convert the bmp to jpg or do I have to read up on the jpg file format and learn myself??? thanks to anybody who can help ( or if anybody wants to help me code this thing :D ) by the way I''m using DevC++ if that makes a difference

thanks but how do I go about the actual converting part?

check out the intel jpeg library.
thats the simplest to use . i think.