Win11 bug: Cannot change association of jpg files to Irfanview

[amdkt7]

I wish I could find the "Always use this app". So far it is not showing up. Yeah, W11 default app section is a mess.

[JendaLinda]

I'm sorry I'm not using the English version of Windows.

The dialog should look similar to this:

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

English Dialog

[amdkt7]

I'm sorry I'm not using the English version of Windows.

The dialog should look similar to this:

This is what I see. I think this is the same dialog as yours. Looks like the difference is that yours already has IrfanView as the default app. Mine has "Photos" already in there. I can change other file type to open with IrfanView, but not png and jpg (and some other common types).

[JendaLinda]

Does your user account have administrator privileges?

Edit: This seems to be a bug in Windows 11. Try to run these commands in Power Shell as Administrator:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.ZuneVideo -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.ZuneMusic -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

[amdkt7]

I think I fixed it. I went to "Apps and Features", found Microsoft Photos, clicked on the hamburger menu on the far right, chose "advanced options" went to the Reset section and performed both the Repair and the Reset functions. After that I was then able to associate jpg and other file types to Irfanview. Now clicking a jpg file opens with Irfanview.

[amdkt7]

Does your user account have administrator privileges?

Edit: This seems to be a bug in Windows 11. Try to run these commands in Power Shell as Administrator:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.ZuneVideo -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.ZuneMusic -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

I think I just did the same thing from the settings menu as I described above.
What a headache it was. So, this appears to be an issue with MS, not so much Irfanview. MS Photos is a bug. An unwanted cockroach infestation. Any app that MS does not allow you to uninstall is going to be a source of trouble for users who prefer different choices.

[JendaLinda]

Seems like it. I rather don't mess with the preinstalled Windows Apps and just ignore them. I tried to uninstall them previously in Win10 and it led to problems.

[takysoft]

Does your user account have administrator privileges?

Edit: This seems to be a bug in Windows 11. Try to run these commands in Power Shell as Administrator:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.ZuneVideo -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.ZuneMusic -AllUsers | Reset-AppxPackage

Hi!
I think that is exactly my solution for this issue

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/cant-change-default-apps-windows-11-os-build/17b96a09-86f0-4362-a3aa-da6eb765fc5b

I've posted it a while ago to this forum first, and I'm glad that it made it other places too (I'm not here to take credit, I also stole half or the solution )

The thing, why I registered here, and leave this comment is, that I've installed a few W11 systems in the last month, and IrfanView broke this settings in W11 every single time.

Whenever Irfanview tries to set itself as a default app, the system breaks. I assume Irfanview tries to set itself as default in some non-standard way. Probably editing Registry entried directly, which may have worked before, but does not work any more in W11.

And While I totally agree, that W11 should really not break so easily, I'd urge you to reclassify this as a bug. As this is a bug, and a kinda annoying one.
And as more and more people will get on the Windows 11 wagon, this issue will multiply.

If I may suggest a very quick workaround:
Set some kind of detection for the operating system... and disable this feature(setting Irfanview as a default app) in case it's Windows 11. It breaks the system and doesn't work either way.
Maybe put these some text explaining how to do it manually in the Windows Settings...

This should be a quick fix, that would work well until either you solve this, or Microsoft does.

But as for now: Irfanview breaks file-associations in Windows 11.
And that is bad...

[JendaLinda]

Hi!
I think that is exactly my solution for this issue

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/cant-change-default-apps-windows-11-os-build/17b96a09-86f0-4362-a3aa-da6eb765fc5b

I'm guilty. I stole the solution from your post.

This is not really a bug in IrfanView, it's a bug in Windows. As far as I know, IrfanView doesn't mess with the default app settings. It just allows to set file associations in registry, the same way like in old Windows. This is optional and the user has to tick the checkbox to do that.

However, during my testing the system didn't break. Perhaps I did something different. I will try some more testing on a virtual machine.

[DownSet]

I would definitely consider this a bug and prevent it from happening on Windows 11, or include a way to revert the change in Settings. I can easily reproduce it in a VM simply by installing IrfanView. The real part that makes me call it a bug is it will prevent almost all file types from being associated, including MKV, something that isn't in the list. This is what was throwing me off for a long time as to the cause. Other programs that set associations like VLC will instead open the Default Apps settings window in Windows 10/11, IrfanView should probably do the same now.

It's highly repeatable in a VM. I can create a snapshot of a clean install of Windows 11, check that I can associate files, install IrfanView while checking the associate extension box, check that I can associate files again and it's broken. I can revert to the snapshot and run through it with no change. Here's a video of me running through it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBF-qqg93_Q.) I've also tested not checking the box during install, and in that instance everything works out fine. If you try to set associations in Settings later, it will break just as it does during install.

[JendaLinda]

I agree that the way IrfanView manages file types has some problems and it should be adjusted to work better in newer versions of Windows. On the other hand, Windows shouldn't break so easily. Windows 11 still can run programs from 1995 and people will be running some older programs, just because there is no newer version available.

Now I'm wondering what I did differently so the system didn't break.

[davy]

Hey all - I know a lot of people have this issue so can't tell why some don't. Been looking into this issue since September when I upgraded to Win11, and only in last few days found the workarounds through Powershell - which have worked for some applications like VLC, but not for Irfanview. So there must be something that this proggie is doing differently,

Of course I realize that MS have their fair share of responsibility on this, however the OS drives how the interfaces evolve, and the applications have to follow, that's life and R&D work for sure.
I am happy to contribute in any way I can but please find a way to align. I'd hate to have to go to another application after that many years with Irfan (and not sure there even is an alternative for me).

Thanks!

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

It is clearly not a bug in IrfanView as Windows 11 is not officially supported yet. See the download page:

• Supports Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10

Windows 11 users will have to wait until Irfan Skiljan releases a version tested on Windows 11. He may not even have a copy of it yet.
When version 4.59 comes out, if it officially supports Windows 11, then we can look again at this issue.

[permik]

I solved this problem like this:
iv_patch.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\AppX43hnxtbyyps 62jhe9sqpdzxn1790zetc]
"NoOpenWith"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\AppX6eg8h5sxqq9 0pv53845wmnbewywdqq5h]
"NoOpenWith"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\AppX9rkaq77s0jz h1tyccadx9ghba15r6t3h]
"NoOpenWith"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\AppXk0g4vb8gvt7 b93tg50ybcy892pge6jmt]
"NoOpenWith"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\AppXvhc4p7vz4b4 85xfp46hhk3fq3grkdgjg]
"NoOpenWith"=-