Picture & Fax Viewer - No preview available for pictures on desktop

[Keith Miller]

After scanning some photos and saving to the desktop as .jpg files, I found I could not preview them
with the windows picture and fax viewer --- I received the "No Preview Available" when they were
double-clicked. They opened fine in Paint and PhotoDeluxe, and thumbnails were visible when viewing
the desktop contents thru explorer, so it didn't seem to be a corrupt file issue.

After some experimentation, I found that if the files were moved to another folder, they would
preview fine. Move them back to the desktop - no preview. This is true for all my .jpgs.

I know I was able to preview them some months ago, but hadn't saved any pics to desktop in a while.
I don't know when the behavior changed and am therefore reluctant to try system restore.

Is anyone else seeing this behavior? Does anyone know the cause/solution?

Thanks to all,
Keith

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Keith,

Just for reference, what was the other folder name? Did it contain a long
file or path name (had spaces in it)? If not, then it may just be a simple
registry edit that's needed to correct this issue.

Click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT Go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\open\command

The Default value of this key should read:

rundll32.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1

Note: if XP is not installed on C:, yours will read differently.

 

[Keith Miller]

The other folder was:
"C:\Documents and Settings\Keith\My Documents\My Pictures\Old Family Photos"

I had changed my registry slightly, long before this problem appeared, to allow both open & preview
for jpegs. The shell portion of my jpegfile entry is below, but I think the problem lies elsewhere
as further checking shows the same behavior for bitmaps & tif images: they will show a preview
unless they are residing in the desktop folder. Previews even work in subfolders of the desktop,
just not the desktop itself!!!

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell]
@="preview"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\open]
@="&Open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4.0\\PD4.exe\" %1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\open\ddeexec]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\open\ddeexec\Application]
@="PD4"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic]
@="System"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\preview]
@="Pre&view"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\preview\command]
@="rundll32.exe C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\preview\ddeexec]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\preview\ddeexec\Application]
@="shimgvw"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\preview\ddeexec\Topic]
@="System"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\printto]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\shell\printto\command]
@="rundll32.exe C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_PrintTo /pt \"%1\" \"%2\" \"%3\"
\"%4\""

Thanks,
Keith

 

[Lemon Jelly]

Keith Miller - typed:

I found that this is only happening in my user profile. Other
profiles can preview files stored on the desktop. If I create a new
user & copy my profile over, the problem is replicated in that user
-- so I think the problem is in HKCU.

Actually, no. The HKCU is a dynamic copy (symbolic link) of the logged
on profile from the HK_USERS branch. Sounds like you've copied the
user.dat from the old profile & duplicated your problem. I would
recreate a new profile & copy across everything else. You may loose
certain settings. The alternative is to troubleshoot why that profile
has messed up the system properties for that folder.

Kelly's site has a wealth of fixes of this nature:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp.htm

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Lemon Jelly,

Keith is correct. While you can consider HKCU a symbolic link to
HKEY_USERS\(SID Here...........), if you make a change in either of these
branches of the Registry, it is instantly reflected in the other. Try it.

 

[Keith Miller]

user.dat was copied, that's part of the functionality of 'copy to' in the users profile dialog. I
did not expect it to fix it so much as to verify it as a registry problem --- now to track down the
entry!!! .

I am aware that HKCU reflects HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1454471165-1563985344-1417001333-1003, sorry for
not typing it out the first time.

Keith

 

[Keith Miller]

I created another test user and, rather than use the profile copy feature, just copied the
ntuser.dat file from the bad profile to the good. I was able to preview jpegs on that desktop, so I
started to doubt it was a registry problem.

I then copied the desktop folder from the bad profile to one that was able to preview and suddenly,
no preview. To determine whether the contents or the folder itself was at fault, I copied the
entire contents to a newly created folder. Preview would not work there, so I started looking at
the contents.

The culprit was a shortcut I had attempted to create by adding the CLSID for IE History to the My
Computer namespace and then placing a shortcut to that on the desktop. It never worked properly,
but did open an explorer window rooted at the desktop with everything collapsed, which I kind of
liked and therefore hadn't deleted it.

Anyway, it turned out to be the culprit. Once it was deleted, Picture & Fax viewer worked normally
with images on the desktop.......Go Figure!?!?!?!?

Thanks to all who offered advice,
Keith

user.dat was copied, that's part of the functionality of 'copy to' in the users profile dialog. I
did not expect it to fix it so much as to verify it as a registry problem --- now to track down the
entry!!! .

I am aware that HKCU reflects HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1454471165-1563985344-1417001333-1003, sorry for
not typing it out the first time.

Keith