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

When you open Default ProgramsSet 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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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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