Windows Photo Viewer loading.... and nothing comes up

Ok, I am trying to open ANY image with Windows Photo Viewer. When I open the image, it just shows "loading..." and nothing comes up. Now, I can open with and choose a different program, like MS paint (or any other graphics program) and can see the image just fine. Its just with Windows Photo Viewer! I did a lot of research on this. Some people were saying to do a mfc /scannow, some said updating drivers. I did everything I have read and nothing worked. Other people had the same problem, and all they did was switch to another program. I don't want to do that. Everyone else, and I mean EVERYONE ELSE who I had the problem, has the same brand name video card - ATI Radeon! No idea what to do next. I downloaded the latest drivers from the ATI website. Any ideas?

Hi

Are you Opening the image or Previewing it?

Do you have your computer set to show thumbnails in Windows Explorer?

I have a ATI Radeon video card, when I select Preview it opens in Windows Picture Viewer.
If I select open then it opens in Adobe Photoshop because that's the program set to open images.

Every thing I see seems to indicate that when you change the Open With setting it changes the Preview program.

It doesn't do that on my computer, even though I have Open With set to Photoshop, preview still opens in Picture Viewer but I can't seem to find anything about setting Picture Viewer to Open when Preview is selected.

Make sure that the folder that the images are in is set to Pictures in the Customize tab.
This does effect how it handles the files.

I thought I new the answer to this but the more I look at it, the more confused I get.
I just always worked the way it does on my computer.

Anyone else have any ideas.

Mike

Mike,

Thumbnails preview works just fine in the folder. Its when I double click on the file to open it, in Windows Picture Viewer it just shows "loading..." and nothing else. The photos will open perfectly with any other viewer. Thanks!

Can you verify Photo Viewer is working normally by going to your library, pictures, sample pictures and see if you can open, or open with Photo Viewer?

Maybe there is something about that folder causing a problem. Or possibility something it needs has gotten corrupted or missing.

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

Can you verify Photo Viewer is working normally by going to your library, pictures, sample pictures and see if you can open, or open with Photo Viewer?

Maybe there is something about that folder causing a problem. Or possibility something it needs has gotten corrupted or missing.

I went to sample pictures, and see the thumbnails of the images there. When I double click on any picture, Windows Photo Viewer comes up, with just "loading..." and nothing more. Any folder, any location, does the same thing. Even pictures from the desktop.

When I see Windows doing something out of the ordinary for a basic Windows utility, I suggest running the SFC /scannow utility. But since you have already done that and it found no problems, I suppose we will have to look somewhere else.

Photoviewer looks at many things before it opens pictures. It checks for any "suppression" keys or open only in app keys, or only in Browser keys and permissions. Also, an Anti-virus will look at the file first.

You might check the Event Viewer to see if any Errors or Warnings show up around the time you try to open a picture.

It also opens a file in the temp section of your AppData\Local folder. Not sure why it would have trouble getting access.

You might open the Default Programs, Set Associations and check some of the file associations and see if Windows PhotoViewer is listed or something else. Maybe the driver for you video card, or some utility associated with it has altered the normal behavior.

In the Program Files folder (x86) and normal, there is a Windows Photo Viewer folder. It contains a ImagingDevices.exe file and 4 .dll files. So, has anyone suggested re-registering any .dlls?

You may want to wait for other input, but I would try re-registering those four .dll files. The link below tells you how, but post back with questions. I am not that familiar with the command but others are. I suggest this because there are entries all over the registry concerning PhotoView. If something had changed or removed one of those entries, the program may not work correctly.

Regsvr32

Edit: I just tried re-registering the 4 .dlls and only 2 would re-register... In the Admin Command Prompt Window, I changed directory to the Windows Photo Viewer folder. You may not have to do that for the two files that will register, depending on where you prefer to enter the path...

I guess its possible that it may be an Anti-virus program holding things up.... but I can't close out of it. My customer uses Windows Security Essentials, and there is not an option to close out of it. I tried checking task manager to close out of it, but can't even see Windows Security Essentials running. I tried to view the picture in safe mode, but safe mode does not allow viewing of jpgs, in safe mode, with Windows Picture Viewer! How stupid.

Nothing shows up in Event Viewer with warnings or errors.

It does show Windows Picture viewer as the default viewer.

No, I do not have a Windows Picture Viewer folder, which is very odd. I don't know where this file is. Do you know the .exe name, so I can do a search? Is it ImagingDevices.exe??? If so, that file is not on this hard drive! The program has to be installed because it opens, it just doesn't display the images. So now I can't even get to those 4 DLL's. I'm convinced it something to do with ATI, and not Windows in general.

any thing else please.

I am sorry, the folder is Window Photo Viewer.

But the PhotoViewer.dll runs in a dllhost.exe which makes it a little hard to pin down.

What happens when you ask to Preview the file instead of double clicking on it?
On my computer Picture Viewer only opens when I preview it.

I can't think of any way that your video card would effect this but I guess anything is possible.

Try opening your computer in Safe Mode and then open an image, using the basic display driver and see if it opens without your video card drivers loaded.

I'm not sure what that would prove but it might be some kind of clue if it opens.

Mike

Saltgrass--> I knew what you meant, but even that folder is no where to be found, yet somehow the EXE file opens up when I click on a photo to be opened.

Mike--> Already tried it. Windows Photo Viewer does not operate in safe mode. No idea why Bill Gates made it like that, but it doesn't. So, in safe mode, I cant test the problem. It still will open in MS Paint or whatever in safe mode, just not windows photo viewer.

My solution? To give up. I installed INFRANVIEW instead. Too much of a pain the other way, so installed that free app. The hell with it.

Thanks!