Fix the Windows Photo Gallery Icon in Default Programs in Windows Vista

© Ramesh Srinivasan | Windows Vista | 2nd September 2008

When you open Default Programs – Set your default programs applet, Windows Photo Gallery entry is displayed with an incorrect icon (showing two gears, which is the default icon for DLL files) instead of the nice looking Windows Photo Gallery icon.

This is because the image preview is handled by Windows Photo Gallery DLL file PhotoViewer.dll. Here is the command-line for the Preview action:

rundll32.exe "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Photo Gallery\PhotoViewer.dll", ImageView_Fullscreen %1

Although this is only a cosmetic issue and can be ignored, I’ve found a way to fix the Windows Photo Gallery icon in Default Programs. The trick is to insert an additional file type in the registry and associating it with WindowsPhotoGallery.exe. The tool below does that exactly.

1. Download WPGIconFix.zip and save to Desktop

2. Unzip the archive and extract the files to a folder

3. Run the file WPGIconFix.exe

4. Click Allow when you see the UAC elevation dialog.

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5 Comments

  1. user
    said this on Wednesday, December 10th 2008 7:13 am

    This does not work on x64 version…

  2. Rick Rahnenfuhrer
    said this on Sunday, October 5th 2008 12:45 am

    Hi, in other words this fix will only work for Photo Gallery?
    The only problem I have ever really had with Vista and can’t figure out what triggers it, is that every so offten something changes my icons either on the desktop or in folders and in the Start Menu folders to the gerneric paper looking icon. With most if I go to the icons properties I can change it back to the normal icon by doing it twice. Some Icon can not be changed back because the button is grayed out. Will this fix correct the icons back to their orig ones?

    Thanks
    Rick

  3. Ramesh Srinivasan
    said this on Thursday, September 4th 2008 7:40 am

    @hexaae: Don’t have a fix for individual file types icon at the moment, but will work on this.

  4. hexaae
    said this on Wednesday, September 3rd 2008 11:38 pm

    Wait a min… default icon used for JPEGS and other image formats is still the ugly DLL. Can this be fixed too or should fix every extension association class in the registry?

  5. hexaae
    said this on Wednesday, September 3rd 2008 11:32 pm

    Thanks a lot Ramesh! :)

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