Pictures autoplay all hosed up

K

Kathy

Something happened that has hosed up the XP autoplay functionality for me,
for images only. I have a removable firewire drive, when I look at the
Autoplay properties for that drive, there is nothing listed in the "Select
Action To Perform" list, for Pictures only.

The usual applications and actions are listed for every other media types,
music, video, and mixed content, but the list for music files is completely
blank.

I might add that I'm trying to implement an autoplay function for a
client's photo organizer application and I know I did something to the
registry, but I don't have any idea what I did or how to recover from the
problem. I backed up the registry before I started tinkering with it, but
importing my saved registry didn't solve the problem.

If anyone has ideas, I'd be very appreciative.

- Kathy
 
K

Kathy

BTW, I tried the autofix program from Microsoft and it didn't find any
problems.

The hard drive contains mostly jpeg files, and there are multiple
applications registered to open jpeg's on my machine, I see them in the Open
With menu when I right-click on the jpeg's. Somehow it seems like no
applications are registered for autoplay and I have no idea how to add them.

I installed the Microsoft MSDN autoplay sample app's and installed and
registered them as autoplay handlers, but they don't come up either.

Help :-(

- Kathy
 
J

John Inzer

Kathy said:
BTW, I tried the autofix program from Microsoft and it
didn't find any problems.

The hard drive contains mostly jpeg files, and there are
multiple applications registered to open jpeg's on my
machine, I see them in the Open With menu when I
right-click on the jpeg's. Somehow it seems like no
applications are registered for autoplay and I have no
idea how to add them.
I installed the Microsoft MSDN autoplay sample app's and
installed and registered them as autoplay handlers, but
they don't come up either.
Help :-(

- Kathy

========================================

Maybe something in the following list will be useful


If you recently installed Real Player 10, this is the likely culprit. You
will have to uninstall it and maybe do something else as described below.
Real Player is aware of the problem and a fix is on the way.



Several ways to download your pictures, from your camera or card reader.





Before you connect your camera to your computer, make sure you have enough
battery power or better yet use your AC connector if your camera came with
one. Then, check your camera manual. With most cameras you simply power
them on and set them to take pictures, with some you need to set them to
something like connect to PC or set PTP. After connecting, power the camera
and wait about 15-20 seconds for XP to recognize the camera, you will hear
some sound "ding-dong" and the LCD screen on your camera will change (the
change is dependent on the type of camera you have) and you are now ready to
transfer, even if the Autoplay window does not open automatically. If you
do not hear a sound or the LCD screen of your camera does not change, the
connection with the USB port is not correct. Go to the bottom of these
directions to repair the USB connection.



After you hear the sound:


1. Open My Computer, look under devices with removable storage. Your camera
(or card reader) will be listed there as an external drive (probably listed
below your CD drive). Right click on your camera listed as an external
drive. A menu will open, click on Autoplay listed on the opening menu. This
should open the Autoplay window to download your photos the same way as when
the Autoplay window opens automatically when you connect your camera.



Or

2. Open My Computer, look under devices with removable storage. Your camera
will be listed there as an external drive (probably listed below your CD
drive). Double click on it to open it.
You will see a folder, double click to open it, then another folder, double
click on it to open it and you will see the list of photo files. Select all
files
and copy to a folder on your hard drive. To select all the files, hold the
Ctrl key down and press the letter A. Or, click on Edit on your top bar and
then click on Select all on the opening menu. When files are selected, their
names are highlighted in blue. You can then look at the menu on the left
of the file names and click on Copy and then select the folder you want or
make a new folder.

If you want to repair the automatic Autoplay window you can try the
following.

Different ways to try to repair the Autoplay window for downloading from
either a camera or card reader. Also the same procedure can be used for a CD
drive Autoplay.

Go from steps I to V, although step V may not be needed.

I. Connect your camera (or card reader) to your computer, and make sure you
have
pictures on your memory card. Make sure your batteries are good or better
yet, use your AC adapter if your camera came with one. If you are trying
with a card reader, just connect it with a memory card inserted and with
pictures on the memory card. Power the camera on, wait 10-15 seconds for XP
to recognize it, you should hear a sound and the LCD screen of your camera
will change, the change is dependent on the type of camera you have.

Click on My Computer and look under Device with Removable storage. Your
camera will be listed there, probably below your CD drive, and a drive
letter will be assigned to it (something like H, G, etc.) You will use this
drive letter in a step below, so just note down what the drive letter is.
If you do not see your camera listed there you will need to repair your USB
connection (see below for repair) or you are on a network and the network
drive is Z and XP cannot assign a drive letter to your camera. You will need
to take care of this
first. The steps below will not work if XP cannot assign a drive letter for
your camera. In some cases, your camera may be listed but with no drive
letter. Try the drive letter after the CD or DVD drive under which your
camera is listed.

II. Click on Start, click on Run and type the following in the textbox:
REGSVR32 SHIMGVW.DLL
and press Enter
Note that there is a space between ...32 and SHI...
This will take a few seconds to run.

III. Download the autofix.exe file from the site below. At this Microsoft
site, you have the option of downloading the autofix.exe file in one of your
folder (or make a new folder and save the file there), then open the folder
and double click on the file and then follow directions on the screen. Or,
let Microsoft scan your computer to make the repair. You will need your
camera drive letter during this step. After this, reboot your computer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...b6-e8fa-45c4-a171-1b389cfacdad&DisplayLang=en



IV. After rebooting, power the camera on, wait 10-15 seconds for XP to
recognize it, you
should hear some beeping sound and the Autoplay window should now open
giving you the option of downloading photos from the camera.

V. You may have to set the options for this window.
Click on My Computer, your camera should be listed there under Devices with
Removable Storage. Right click on it and click on Properties. In the opening
window, click on the Autoplay tab and under Select, scroll to Pictures to
select it. Select the button Prompt me... Do the same thing for a CD drive.



Another solution posted here (on page 3):



http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfo...message.id=3681&view=by_date_ascending&page=2



Another solution posted by Bill, using a Nikon camera.

I installed the camera via the control panel add hardware function. It went
to a point of requiring a file called ptspusd.dll from service pack one. I
found the file via search on my hard drive. Typed the path in the window
that asked for it and it took. Solved the problem. Check your set up menu on
the camera to see your USB setting is PTP.




To repair your USB connection:

Go to Control panel>Performance and maintenance>System>Hardware>Device
manager>Universal Serial Bus Controller, click on the + sign to see the list
of installed devices. If your camera is connected, it should be listed there
with a yellow flag (the yellow flag indicates that although the connection
is there, it is not working properly).

Right click on it>Properties>Troubleshoot. See if the troubleshooter can
help. If not, click on Action on the top bar and then Uninstall. Leave your
camera on and connected and reboot. XP should now recognize the camera and
install it (I am assuming here that your camera is fully compatible with XP
and according to your manual you do not need to install a driver, this
should be true for cameras of 2001 and up).



Also, check the software you use for photo editing. When you open the
software, click on File on the top bar. Look at the opening menu. You
probably have an option for downloading photos from a camera or scanner or
card reader.



Something else may be the problem (This is a more recent, June 2004,
problem) as reported here:

There are a lot of messages here about the camera wizard suddenly not
working. Same for me after having it work for at least a year. One of the
messages mentioned upgrading Real Player seemed to cause the problem. I
recently upgraded that also. Just uninstalled it and my camera wizard came
back immediately - this after weeks of trying to figure out what went wrong!
--
Brigit



(Note: some have reported that uninstalling Real Player 10 works fine,
others have reported that they had to use the autofix.exe after removing
Real Player 10. Real Player is aware of the problem and working on a fix).
Apparently there was no problem with Real Player 9.



Another possible solution.

Click on Start, click on Run and type the following in the opening textbox:

cmd

and press the Enter key

A window will open (black and white) and will display the following:

C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\

Type the following at the end of the above line after the \

Net start stisvc

And press the Enter key

You will get a message that service is already started (if so this does not
solve the problem) or that it is starting (if so this may solve the
problem). Then try connecting your camera after you close this window. To
close this window, type EXIT at the end of the displayed line and press the
Enter key.

More info posted in the newsgroup:

SOLVED IT! Open Tweak UI if you have it. Get it if you
don't. In Tweak UI, open the My Computer tab/line and
click on Drives. A list of all possible drive names will
appear with the ones you want to show in My Computer
checked. If your removable storage/generic volume/camera
drive as shown in Device Manager (mine was F:) is not
checked, check it. The drive will appear in My Computer.
If your drive is already checked, it's something else.

Tweak UI can be downloaded from the following site:

Windows XP PowerToys /
free download
http://tinyurl.com/36n

--

John Inzer
Picture It! MVP
return e-mail disabled

Picture It! Support Center
http://tinyurl.com/2po2o

Digital Image Support Center
http://tinyurl.com/3xxqg
 
K

Kathy

I fixed it (kind of, but at least I've got stuff showing in the "Select
Action To Perform" list again).

I used TweakUI, which showed several installed handlers for pictures (even
though they weren't showing up in the Autoplay list). I removed them with
TweakUI, then added them back, and voila! the list came back (although with
one entry that is gibberish, I'll figure out a way to get rid of that).

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions. I have seen this question asked
several times on the net and in other ng's, but have never seen a solution
posted. Now if only I could figure out what was hosed up to cause this to
happen so I don't do it again.

And I'm definitely not a Microsoft basher, but after years of programming
Windows (since Windows 2.1), I am of the opinion that whoever conceived of a
global registry for absolutely every function on a home computer was having
a bad nightmare.

As programmers, we have no choice but to modify the registry constantly and
with no convenient way to undo our changes once we've made them and
sometimes we don't get everything right the first time (imagine that!). It
shouldn't be so trivially easy to completely screw up your computer. There
should be a different message in the registry editor when you are deleting a
single entry or an entire tree.

Anyway, at least I'm back to partially working again.

Thanks again.

- Kathy
 
J

John Inzer

Kathy said:
I fixed it (kind of, but at least I've got stuff showing
in the "Select Action To Perform" list again).

I used TweakUI, which showed several installed handlers
for pictures (even though they weren't showing up in the
Autoplay list). I removed them with TweakUI, then added
them back, and voila! the list came back (although with
one entry that is gibberish, I'll figure out a way to get
rid of that).
Thanks for all your helpful suggestions. I have seen
this question asked several times on the net and in other
ng's, but have never seen a solution posted. Now if only
I could figure out what was hosed up to cause this to
happen so I don't do it again.
And I'm definitely not a Microsoft basher, but after
years of programming Windows (since Windows 2.1), I am of
the opinion that whoever conceived of a global registry
for absolutely every function on a home computer was
having a bad nightmare.
As programmers, we have no choice but to modify the
registry constantly and with no convenient way to undo
our changes once we've made them and sometimes we don't
get everything right the first time (imagine that!). It
shouldn't be so trivially easy to completely screw up
your computer. There should be a different message in
the registry editor when you are deleting a single entry
or an entire tree.
Anyway, at least I'm back to partially working again.

Thanks again.

- Kathy
==================================
You're welcome.

Thanks for the update.

BTW, I'm just a volunteer who tries to share
useful info...I am not a tech or a programmer.

--

John Inzer
Picture It! MVP
return e-mail disabled

Picture It! Support Center
http://tinyurl.com/2po2o

Digital Image Support Center
http://tinyurl.com/3xxqg
 

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