IrfanView creates its own folders when opening an image

[pepperdog]

I am a new user of IrfanView and have the latest version installed.

Each time I view an image in a folder IrfanView creates it's own folder there.

Inside the folder is an i_view32 icon and when opeing an i_view32 - Notepad with text.

Can anyone advise how I can stop this happening?

[GKA]

Inside the folder is an i_view32 icon and when opeing an i_view32 - Notepad with text.

Can you please explain a little bit more what you mean by this and what happens.

[pepperdog]

Thanks for your respose. When I click on any picture in a folder, another folder appears in the same folder that I am in. The folder is called i_view32 and contains the above. This happens in every foder that I open a picture in, so I will evetually have one in every folder! I keep deleting them but they come back again as soon as I open a picture agian in that folder.

[Mij]

I think you probably have a corrupted version of the configuration file i_view32.ini.
If you have an icon on your desktop, or somewhere else, that opens the Irfanview program, right click on it and select Open file location. In that folder you should find the i_view32.exe program (Type: Application) and the i_view32.ini file (Type: Configuration settings). Double click on the i_view32.ini file which should open in Notepad. Look for a line that starts INI_FOLDER=... and tell us what the rest of that line reads. Make sure you copy it exactly including any dots or spaces.

If you do not have an icon you will have to navigate to C:\Program files\Irfanview (or it may be C:\Program files(64)\Irfanview) and look for i_view32.ini there.
If you need further instructions make sure you first complete your profile by filling in which Windows operating system you have. It makes it far easier to tell you what to do if you have done that.

[pepperdog]

This is the info you requested:
INI_Folder=%APPDATA%\IrfanView
I have updated my profile

[Mij]

That is what should be there. There should be a line that says [Others] before it, so the complete entry should read

[Others]
INI_Folder=%APPDATA%\IrfanView

The reason I asked you to look there is that the INI folder is the only one that Irfanview creates automatically.

%appdata% is a system variable that should point to the C:\users\[your user name]\appdata\roaming folder, so that is where the program expects to find an Irfanview folder containing the file i_view32.ini every time it opens. If there is no Iranview folder or no i_view32.ini file in it, a new one is created.

So the only explanation I can suggest is that the system variable is pointing to the wrong place. I have no idea how (or even if) that can happen but I suggest that you open Irfanview, then click on the Windows Start button and type %appdata% in the Search programs and files box at the bottom of the start menu. A folder name should appear at the top of the menu which you should click on and see where the Windows Explorer dialog opens. It should be the appdata\roaming folder I mentioned above but let us know anyway and we can consider what to do next.

[pepperdog]

Yes, the [Others] appears first.

I did what you mentioned and the folder at the top of the list was 'Mapisvc' and when I click on this it opens 'mapisvc - Notepad', which lists various text that I presume is not relevant.

I do not know if this is any help but this is what is listed on the 'i_view32 - Notepad' that was in one of the folders created when viewing an image:
[Open]
OpenDir=C:\Users\Elaine\Pictures\2. PHOTO SELECT\Animals\
[WinPosition]
xKoord=0
yKoord=0
Width=1256
Height=1040
Maximized=0

[Mij]

You certainly should not be seeing mapisvc when you type %appdata% into the search box. I understand that file contains application data for Microsoft Outlook.

The data that you posted and what you describe are exactly what you would expect to get if %appdata% expanded to the wrong folder location. It appears, from Googling, that the appdata system variable expanding incorrectly is a known problem but I did not see any solution posted, so I cannot help you solve it.

If you are happy for all users to have the same Irfanview initialization file then a workaround would be to edit the line in the ini file you have from

INI_Folder=%APPDATA%/Irfanview
to, for example,
INI_Folder=C:\Users\Public\Appdata\Irfanview

That would allow an ini file to be created in the Public folder, where all users can read and write data to it, without the need to use that problematic system variable.