Windows 10 Metro Pre-installed apps do not play nice with other picture viewers.

[EliasNM]

Here's a little background to the following issue; yesterday I was helping a friend finish up his build and everything went smoothly till we got to changing default programs. We installed the following 3 picture viewers (Picasa, FastStone Viewer and IrfanView) on 3 different resets to see if it reproduced the same outcome, which was the same each time. We did not try Sagethumbs though we want to if no one has tried using Sagethumbs to see it causes the same issue we had.

 

The issue is as follows, when you change the default picture viewer to anything else* than Photos it "removes" the icons of the remaining pre-installed metro apps. This is does not occur if the a pre-installed metro app is open and will not happen if opened and closed until a restart takes place. Resetting the default apps in the Settings app to their defaults does not fix the issue. Running a sfc /scannow does not solve it either. I ended up bring in my Surface and copying the icon image files from mines to his PC and only worked when we had the default app as Photos. Do note that the icon image files are .png. I looked all over the internet and followed through with some suggestions with no results. We have not tried to install any Metro apps to see if it carries over to newly installed apps since he does not use any apart from Xbox which is where we noticed this icon change. The icon change happens in all the ways possible to see the icon of said app, task bar, start menu, Cortana, search, etc.

 

I'm looking for further suggestions and if anyone knows a fix I would appreciate the help.

 

* Only on those mentioned apps this issue was recorded and that conclusion was taken given they are the most common replacement image viewers for Windows.

[JefferyD90]

Here's a little background to the following issue; yesterday I was helping a friend finish up his build and everything went smoothly till we got to changing default programs. We installed the following 3 picture viewers (Picasa, FastStone Viewer and IrfanView) on 3 different resets to see if it reproduced the same outcome, which was the same each time. We did not try Sagethumbs though we want to if no one has tried using Sagethumbs to see it causes the same issue we had.

 

The issue is as follows, when you change the default picture viewer to anything else* than Photos it "removes" the icons of the remaining pre-installed metro apps. This is does not occur if the a pre-installed metro app is open and will not happen if opened and closed until a restart takes place. Resetting the default apps in the Settings app to their defaults does not fix the issue. Running a sfc /scannow does not solve it either. I ended up bring in my Surface and copying the icon image files from mines to his PC and only worked when we had the default app as Photos. Do note that the icon image files are .png. I looked all over the internet and followed through with some suggestions with no results. We have not tried to install any Metro apps to see if it carries over to newly installed apps since he does not use any apart from Xbox which is where we noticed this icon change. The icon change happens in all the ways possible to see the icon of said app, task bar, start menu, Cortana, search, etc.

 

I'm looking for further suggestions and if anyone knows a fix I would appreciate the help.

 

* Only on those mentioned apps this issue was recorded and that conclusion was taken given they are the most common replacement image viewers for Windows.

This isnt normal.  I'd suggest some other issue is going on.

[EliasNM]

This isnt normal.  I'd suggest some other issue is going on.

I don't think it a rendering image problem, or it can be, He runs a single 980 and its has updated drivers.

[JefferyD90]

I don't think it a rendering image problem, or it can be, He runs a single 980 and its has updated drivers.

I think some other software is conflicting or maybe the install itself went wrong.  I do want to make sure that I understand the issue well, you're saying that when you switch the default picture viewing program the live tiles dont display correctly anymore?

[EliasNM]

I think some other software is conflicting or maybe the install itself went wrong.  I do want to make sure that I understand the issue well, you're saying that when you switch the default picture viewing program the live tiles dont display correctly anymore?

Yes, the icons become white, as if the transperancy in the background of the actual logo disappeared, as if it was rendering a .jpg not .png.

[JefferyD90]

Yes, the icons become white, as if the transperancy in the background of the actual logo disappeared, as if it was rendering a .jpg not .png.

Yea, I'm fairly certain that has nothing to do with changing the default program.  I did it on my machine and had no other issue.  Did you do a upgrade install?

[EliasNM]

Yea, I'm fairly certain that has nothing to do with changing the default program.  I did it on my machine and had no other issue.  Did you do a upgrade install?

Brand new parts brand new install. I'll get him to send me a screenshot.

[EliasNM]

Current solution is to just do a clean install. I will further more research the cause of that, for now for anyone running into such issue this is the solution and I will update this when a "true" solution is found.