# Why can't I open .jpg files?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 25, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859 "2011-06-25T22:40:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/1 "2011-06-25T22:40:36Z")
My computer is not letting me open .jpg files. I get error messages - “No file format information can be found in Registry” and “Unknown file format”.
How do I fix this?
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/2 "2011-06-25T22:43:35Z")
do you know the files are good jpg files?
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### Author:  [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/3 "2011-06-25T22:47:30Z")
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> do you know the files are good jpg files?
Yes, they’re good jpg files with .jpg file extensions.
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### Author:  [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/4 "2011-06-25T22:47:56Z")
What OS are you using? I’m assuming Windows, with the reference to the registry, but what version?
You might try right-clicking it and click “Open with…” and look for Windows Picture Viewer or something similar.
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### Author:  [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/5 "2011-06-25T23:11:19Z")
> [@Electronic\_Chaos](#):
>
> What OS are you using? I’m assuming Windows, with the reference to the registry, but what version?
It’s Windows XP.
> [@Electronic\_Chaos](#):
>
> You might try right-clicking it and click “Open with…” and look for Windows Picture Viewer or something similar.
That seems to work, but it’s cumbersome to open a series of pictures with that method. How do I change things to allow opening on double clicking?
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### Author:  [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/6 "2011-06-25T23:11:59Z")
> [@jebert](#):
>
> My computer is not letting me open .jpg files. I get error messages - “No file format information can be found in Registry” and “Unknown file format”.
>
> How do I fix this?
It might be worth resetting the association for jpg files. Go to the control panel then open Folder Options, click the File Types tab and scroll down to JPG. You can re-associate it with the program you want to open JPG files.
If that doesn’t work, maybe it will lead to an error that provides more clues about what’s wrong.
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### Author:  [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/7 "2011-06-26T00:03:06Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#):
>
> It might be worth resetting the association for jpg files. Go to the control panel then open Folder Options, click the File Types tab and scroll down to JPG. You can re-associate it with the program you want to open JPG files.
>
> If that doesn’t work, maybe it will lead to an error that provides more clues about what’s wrong.
OK. I got to the FileTypes tab and found JPG. It tells me that JPG opens with Microsoft Photo Editor, which is what I expect, but all the control buttons are greyed out - I can’t go beyond this. This is true for all the file types in the list.
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/8 "2011-06-26T00:13:19Z")
Just right click on the file and go to properties
About a third of the way down it’ll say Opens with and they’ll be a button for change. Click that.
You can choose from the recommended programs, or you can choose browse and pick your favourite picture viewer.
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### Author:  [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/9 "2011-06-26T00:25:04Z")
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> Just right click on the file and go to properties
>
> About a third of the way down it’ll say Opens with and they’ll be a button for change. Click that.
>
> You can choose from the recommended programs, or you can choose browse and pick your favourite picture viewer.
Since they don’t have permissions to change the setting through the control panel I don’t think they will be able to that way either.
> [@jebert](#):
>
> OK. I got to the FileTypes tab and found JPG. It tells me that JPG opens with Microsoft Photo Editor, which is what I expect, but all the control buttons are greyed out - I can’t go beyond this. This is true for all the file types in the list.
My hunch is that you may be having [this issue](http://www.techbytes.ca/techbyte25.html):
> [@](#):
>
> When a user tries to open a .JPG and the associated program is Microsoft Photo Editor, they may receive the error “No file format information can be found in the Registry” and the image does not open.
>
> This error occurs due to registry permissions being set incorrectly during the Microsoft Office installation.
>
> To resolve, open **REGEDT32** (or **REGEDIT** on Windows XP/2003) and browse to:
> **HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Graphics Filters**
> Modify the permissions to allow _Users_ **Full Control** of this key and all subkeys.
> For more information see: Microsoft Knowledgebase article [Q260151](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q260151/).
Note that you should be very careful if editing the registry. It looks like a simple fix but be sure to follow the MS knowledgebase article to the letter if you attempt it or even bigger problems could ensue.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/10 "2011-06-26T01:22:17Z")
Lack of control panel permissions shouldn’t affect the regular settings. I know–I run into this problem a lot when running as a Limited User.
Just right click, select Open With, and if a submenu opens, select “choose program.” then select the appropriate program, and check “Always use selected program with this type of file.”
That said, if it is the bug mentioned above, that probably won’t work. But registry control has nothing to do with it.
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### Author:  [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-open-jpg-files/586859/11 "2011-06-26T01:45:50Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Lack of control panel permissions shouldn’t affect the regular settings. I know–I run into this problem a lot when running as a Limited User.
>
> Just right click, select Open With, and if a submenu opens, select “choose program.” then select the appropriate program, and check “Always use selected program with this type of file.”
>
> That said, if it is the bug mentioned above, that probably won’t work. But registry control has nothing to do with it.
I didn’t mean to imply permissions to change the registry.
It is a permission setting that is granted or denied by a registry key to allow user accounts in general to access graphics filters. Apparently an MS Office installation can cause it to be set to block access to all users.
Changing the permission setting in that registry key is the solution to that problem but that would definitely require the user account currently logged in to have access to edit the registry.
The KB article that I cited begins with instructions to log in as Administrator. If **jebert** does so they will be able to both edit the registry key and change file associations through the control panel if they wanted to. But changing the file association isn’t required. They already said the program that is selected is the one they want.