Can't see any photos in Windows Explorer

Hi everyone!!

I haven't been able to see any of my photos as thumbnails when I try and look at them in Windows Explorer... I have to open any pics up in Photoshop to be able to look at them. I have the Photo Viewer on here and I just get a big X in a box and when I try the MS Picture IT, it shuts down the program when I click on a picture to look at it.

Does anyone have any suggestions, I "m sure it's something really simple but I don't know!!

Any suggestions would be appreciated!!

Thanks!!

Happy Holidays!

 

Try this to get your thumbnails back. Hopefully, the rest will follow.

http://users.adelphia.net/~abraxas/dl/RestoreThumbnailViewsinXP.exe

 

Thanks! I downloaded it but it doesn't give .gif or .jpg extensions to fix... I'll try it out now.

Thanks!

 

Nope, still doesn't work.

I click on a thumbnail that is just this little sunset looking icon and the Windows Picture and Fax viewer opens to "no preview available ".

 

From what I have been able to find, this can result from the file associations for images being changed multiple times, or incompletely changed from one app to another.

We can always check the associations, one by one, but let's try this first:

Click Start, click Run, type the following command in the Open box, and then press ENTER:

regsvr32.exe /i shdocvw.dll

 

Okay, I did that. Doesn't seem to make a difference... but I explored other photos, and it seems like its just the .jpg ones that dont show up as thumbnails... Well, no that isn't it either... some .jpg's do open as thumbnails but the majority of them dont. This is strange!!!

BUT, seems like all the .gif's I have DO work as thumbnails....

 

I still can't see photos, is there anything else I can do???

I would appreciate the help!

 

Do you have all image filetypes set to be opened by the same program?

I use ACDSee as my primary image viewer, and all image filetypes except fonts (*.ttf) are set to be opened by it when I double-click on an image file.

If I want an image to open in IrfanView, or one of the several image editing programs I use, I right-click, select "Open with..." from the context menu, and select the program I want to use.

I use the Windows Classic view, rather than XP Standard and, although I normally use the details view in Windows Explore, if I select Thumbnails on Explorer's View menu, all images, no matter what filetype, open as thumbnails.

Because I find thumbnails too small to be useful, I use another program from ACDSee called PicaView, which displays a thumbnail view (max dimensions settable by the user) of the selected image on the context menu.

Again, make sure that all image filetypes are set to be opened by the same program.

 

I don't know how to fix this... Like if Im browsing for a photo to upload, all I get are the little sunset looking pictures, no thumbnails.... how can I fix this.... sorry I didn't understand your explanation!

 

Anyone? I just now tried to reset all the folders and that didn't help, then went one by one and set them to "open" with the window fax / picture viewer? And that didn't work. Some pictures show up ON the folders but not all, I don't know what to do, this is a big pain in the butt... I literally have 1000's of photos and can't open them all up in photoshop when I want to look at them!

Please, any suggestions how to get my thumbnails back?

Happy Sunday!!

 

Just to be sure, did you click 'view' and choose thumbnails within each folder storing pictures, or from Windows Explorer?

 

It's that way on both: Windows Explorer and the folders...

 

From the MS KB article, Thumbnail View Does Not Work for Certain .jpg Files: Typically, .jpg files are encoded in a three-channel, RGB format. It is possible, in some programs, to create .jpg files that are encoded in four- channel, CMYK color format. Windows is unable to display .jpg files that are not in three-channel, RGB color format. That may explain why some of your jpgs aren't displaying as thumbnails.

You might want to take a look at Thumbnail Views Not Displayed for Some File Types, too.

Finally, you could try the repair script, fixpix.vbs, from Doug Knox's site. (I've used a lot of his scripts. They're all safe; i.e., virus free, and they've all worked)

 

.gif and bitmap images are showing up (now I don't know if ALL are showing up but some are) but not .jpeg's..... I did the "fix" didn't reboot, will try that now and see if that does anything....

Thanks for the link!

 

On my Win2K machine, I loaded the MS Office 2003 trial package and this dog proceeded to remove the 'old' MS PhotoEd program that I always designated to default view jpg files. When PhotoEd was removed, the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg registry key ended up changed, also. This caused the thumbnail views to exclude jpg's in the Windows Explorer views. VERY BAD because M$ tries to remove an active application that essentially nothing to do with the major apps in OFFICE 2003. (I was quite PO'ed)

It may be possible that your HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg registry key in WinXP may have been changed in some way, also. The ac tual key names are different from Win2K but this key should have the identical sub keys that appear in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpeg registry key (located right above the .jpg key) has. You might check on this and (if you are regedit savvy and brave) make the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg key have identical entries. I don't know of an easier way to do this manually other than if somebody writes a regedit data file you can execute.


Good luck
Top Dog

 

Hey there!!

Hate to say it, but all that was already there!!!

I had 3 folders under .jpg:

CLSID
OpenWithProgids
PersistantHandler
ShellEX

And I checked .jpeg and those were the same as well...

 

In my research, it seems all fixes to this individual filetype thumbnail problem involve fixing one or more busted registry keys. As I indicated above, I had the same .jpg thumbnail problem with my Win2K machine and fixed it by re-adding the registry key with the following ".reg" file. You can create your own by copying the following lines BETWEEN the ===== lines with "notepad" and saving the file as a reg file as JPG.reg. Then doubleclick the file to start regedit to install. (As per usual, always use regedit to export the original key for safety in case you need to re-enter the original keys.)
-->
===================================
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\ShellEx]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@= "{7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC} "
===================================

PC Magazine says the above registry fix works on ALL windows versions with this type thumbnail problem -->
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,911523,00.asp

Since neither JPEG or JPG appears as thumbnails in your situation, you may have to apply a fix on both types of keys by substituting jpeg for jpg in the above reg file.

I would also believe that substituting the original WinXP installation jpg keys would also likely fix the problem. The reg file to recreate these keys for the jpg version is as follows -->

===================================
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg]
@= "jpegfile "
"Content Type "= "image/jpeg "
"PerceivedType "= "image "

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\jpegfile]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\jpegfile\ShellNew]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\OpenWithProgids]
"jpegfile "=hex(0):

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\PersistentHandler]
@= "{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb} "

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

Again, you can create your own reg file by copying the following lines BETWEEN the ===== lines with "notepad" and saving the file as a reg file like JPG.reg. Then doubleclick the file to start regedit to install.

Good luck
Top Dog