Fix: Windows Live Photo Gallery Update 955359 Breaks Image File Associations

After installing the Update for Windows Live Photo Gallery (KB955359) to fix Quick Time Thumbnail issue in a Windows XP computer, you may be unable to open image files by double-clicking on them. However, you’re able to open/preview images in Windows Live Photo Gallery via the Open With dialog.

After working on this issue for some time, I found that the problem is caused by missing DLL registration. To fix the problem, execute the following command (using an administrator account) from the Start, Run dialog:

After running the command, you should see the following message:

DllRegisterServer in C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Photo Gallery\PhotoViewerShim.dll succeeded.

Double-click and image file to check if the file associations are fixed.

Editor’s note: There is also a file named PhotoViewerShimx64.dll in the Photo Gallery folder. I guess this is the handler to register if you have a Windows XP 64-bit system.

Copyright © 2008 Ramesh Srinivasan. All rights reserved.