Windows Explorer - No preview available

Friday (the 20th), i downloaded and installed a program that i am testing (as a beta tester; i have been beta testing for this company for years). It turned out that the latest version of the program crashed all the times on me so i could not use it.

On the same day, later, i noticed that in windows explorer, i could not see images, like jpg and png, even though i set it to view large icons. Furthermore, on the right pane, where i usually see a much larger version of the images, i get the "No preview available". So all in all, i could no longer SEE what all the photos and images i had.

Thinking it might have something to do with the program i had installed hours earlier, i decided to do a system restore to a couple of days before that program was installed. When looking for possible restore points, i also noticed 4 microsoft updates also happened on the same day i had all those issues, so i figured it would be a good thing to restore to an earlier point, in case those updates messed up something (which i know can happen on occasion).

So, i restored to the 18th and everything was fine. The windows explorer worked fine, as it was before. The program was obviously reverted to a previous beta version, which also worked correctly.

Since i still wanted to test that new beta, and in case the issue was the microsoft updates, i uninstalled the old beta, and installed the new beta. Same problems happened: the beta keeps crashing, and the windows explorer no longer shows images.

I tried uninstalling the new beta without doing a system restore, or installing the old beta, and windows explorer is still wonky, not showing images. I rebooted the computer. Still not showing images.

I am a bit at loss now as i NEED images to show in windows explorer but not sure how to get them back (short of doing another system restore to the 18th again).

I am using Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1. I never experienced this kind of issue before.

Can you help me fix it and make sense of this?

Thanks

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Can you help me fix it and make sense of this?

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Sounds to me like you need to do another restore to the same point as before and stop installing that latest beta until it's fixed. The whole point of beta testing is to find bugs and you've apparently found one. Report it to the software maker and I assume they'll eventually fix it.

Strangely, the restore point that i used, for the 18th, is no longer available when i go to the System Restore window. Where could it be? In addition, there is NO OTHER restore point listed there. Are they listed somewhere else?

If you can't see any Restore Points now, they are likely gone. You may need to try a Repair Install to fix things:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/24319...tallation.html

https://www.winhelp.us/non-destructi...windows-7.html


Note:

If I were beta testing software, I would make sure that I had a known good image backup of my system BEFORE installing any beta software. The whole point of beta testing is to locate problems, and those problems can sometimes include making your system unusable.

Just hoping i don't have to go through all that, is there a way to just repair Windows Explorer?

There might be, if you could find out what is messed up, but you will likely spend more time doing that than doing a Repair Install.

Except that i don't have a disk with the Windows installation files. It was installed when i got my computer :(

Cassel--
On the System Restore window, have you clicked the Show More Restore Points link?

I don't have that option of Show More Restore Points.
When i get to the System Restore window, i get this:

"No restore points have been created on your computer's system drive. To create a restore point, open System Protection"

So i don't know where those restore points i HAD went.

Worth trying although it's not a highly likely fix is to uninstall the latest beta and go back to one that worked. There may be a small chance that it replaces some files related to Windows Explorer and the older beta might re-replace those files with ones that do actually work .

OK uninstalled the "bad" beta. Will install the old one, that was working. I contacted the company to see if they have a cleanup program (as they had for previous versions), in case there is any leftover registry thingies, etc.

I'll report back once i reinstall the old beta. Worth a try.

OK reinstalled the older beta. No change.
I checked for Restore Points, and sure enough, there are 4 added, as there was automatic Microsoft Visual C++ updates.
But nothing before today.
I'll reboot now and see. (crossing fingers)

Nope, no luck.
Still No preview available.
And in place of the icons, some jpg will show up, others won't. None of the png are showing up.

Now, is it normal that a restore point would disappear once it is used? Why can't i get the restore point from the 18th that i used in the first place??

It would seem as though the betas are creating restore points which presumably due to the space allotted to storing restore points are replacing older points. For future use you should increase the space allowed for restore points but that doesn't help you right now.

Might be worth trying an SFC /scannow to see if any Windows files are damaged and can be replaced by the OS itself. It isn't difficult although you *might* need a Windows install CD depending on how the system was installed.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolso...fc-scannow.htm

If none of this helps then you will probably need to find an appropriate Windows install disk and do what jdc2000 suggested above re an over the top repair install.

One other work-around though might be to use a new picture file explorer like FastStone which would have it's own preview viewer(s) instead of Window's file explorer.

It's what I use.. http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

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It would seem as though the betas are creating restore points

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This can't be the case since i installed the new beta on the 20th, and i HAD a restore point for the 18th (when i had not even received it yet) and i don't even remember a restore point on the 20th with a mention of that program. It was only for that C++ upgrade (x4).

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One other work-around though might be to use a new picture file explorer like FastStone which would have it's own preview viewer(s) instead of Window's file explorer.

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I'll keep that in my back pocket as it is VERY inconvenient to not see images, when building a website, giving classes in photo editing, and doing digital scrapbooking in general!

I'll do the scannow for now, as a first step.

I'll report back.