Windows 10: Saving a file breaks thumbnails and messes up file explorer

When I save a file from any browser to anywhere but the default download location it will sometimes freeze while attempting to open a window asking me where to save. It also breaks thumbnails for some reason. I'm forced to close my browser and either log out or restart it doesn't matter which I do. It started happening after I used windows update some time ago but I don't remember exactly when. I'm using a fairly new Acer Nitro 5 I purchased in the last 12 months. I can't find a real pattern to the frequency of crashes other than the window opening to ask where to save the file. Opening task manager to restart file explorer in this frozen state doesn't work because it hangs while attempting too load force me to log out. Any help will be much appreciated.

:)

 

Displaying Thumbnails for .jpg files in Windows 10 File Explorer

Certified_Friend,

Thank you for your continued suggestions and patience. I would like to respond to your questions in some detail and hope it can help us discover/determine a viable solution.



Regarding which files do not have thumbnails: .jpg, .bmp, .avi, .mp4, etc.
They have different icon designs, but no thumbnails.



Regarding installing Windows Live Photo Gallery:

• It is certainly possible I did something wrong, but I started by clicking on the link you provided:
  Windows Live Photo Gallery 2012 (Windows) - Download
• From the web site, on the same line as Windows Live Photo Gallery 2012, I clicked on the Green Button labeled “Free Download, Safe download”.
• On the next page, I chose not to sign-in with either Facebook or Google+, but selected the Alternative Download.
  That downloaded a file “wlsetup-web.exe” which I saved and then executed through File Explorer.
• Navigating to the file in File Explorer, I did a right click and selected Troubleshoot Compatibility.
• Next, I selected Troubleshoot Program, then the first choice, “The program worked in an earlier version of Windows, but won’t install or run now”.
• In the next window, I selected Windows Vista (SP2). [Actually I tried them all, but you specifically said Vista.]
• I then clicked Test the program. When asked by the User Account Control on my computer, I said yes, I wanted to allow changes to my computer which began the Windows Essentials 2012 Preparing to install.
• That was very shortly followed by “Couldn’t Install program”…just as before.
• Did I miss something here?

Regarding previous installation of Windows Live/Essentials: This is a new PC purchased in the last year and it would not let me install any of the Windows Live/Essentials right from the beginning.
I have gone through all the programs listed in Control Panel/Programs and Features/Uninstall a Program and cannot find any program listed that appears to address Microsoft and Windows Live and/or Essentials.



All of that having been said, I have found some more interesting, but not necessarily helpful, idiosyncrasies.

• Changing the default photo viewing program from Photos to Paint changes the design of the icons displayed in File Explorer, but does not result in the thumbnails being displayed.
• Opening a .jpg file in Paint and saving it as a .bmp does result in the thumbnail displaying in File Explorer.
• Interestingly enough, opening a .jpg file in Paint and resaving it as the same .jpg file also results in the thumbnail displaying.
• Even more interesting is that opening a .jpg file in Photos and selecting Edit & Create, Edit, then Save a copy, results in the thumbnail subsequently displaying in File Explorer WHETHER OR NOT the file is actually saved (the final step in saving a copy).
  

I guess the bottom line is that there appears to be an issue between the files as saved on my PC and File Explorer which may not be influenced by either Photos and/or Paint.
Note these exact same files backed-up/duplicated on my Laptop (purchased only a couple months after the PC) properly display as thumbnails in File Explorer.



Certainly, I could spend an indeterminate amount of time going through hundreds of photos, opening each one and resaving them, but that clearly seems inappropriate…there has to be a better way.



Thank you again for your efforts at trying to sort out this weird and annoying situation.



Bill

 

Windows Explorer crashes and thumbnails problem

Hi, I hope you can help me.
Windows Explorer is no longer showing thumbnails on files played by Windows Media Player. I've run cmd and regsvr32 shmedia.dll and regsvr32 shimgvw.dll. That seemed to solve the problem...but it created a different one. Now when I try to open a folder on an external hard drive it crashes. I read in an old 2008 post it was an avi file causing the problem and suggested the run cmd regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll. That solved the opening problem but recreated the thumbnail problem. Any help to achieve both functions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Saves log files ?

You can either read the files in Windows or my preferred method is.....

Download CCcleaner from here...........

CCleaner Professional | Try the world’s most trusted PC cleaner, free!

You can then run cleaner, you will see the log files listed, then if you right click you can save as a text file and then have a read. You may also get an "error reporting" log listed seperatly.