Win7 can't preview pictures

[socratis]

I found that a png preinstalled with Windows 7 failed to preview

Which PNG might that be? Full path Scott if you can please...

Because I did a search on my C:\ drive of the Win7 VM, I found 1546 images, all of them previewed fine in thumbnails in Explorer. I tried opening (like 10) the biggest in HD size and the biggest in dimensions, figuring that might be the problem, but nothing. All I have installed in the VM is Firefox and VBox GAs of course. 3D is enabled.

[scottgus1]

The specific png I tested was in:
C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-g..ets-slideshowgadget_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_253e8c58002c48e1
I copied it to the desktop and had the same error. I found it in a Windows search for ".png". Many of the pngs from that search did not preview and had the error. Other pngs did preview OK. I did see on some occasions the picture flashed for a few milliseconds then the error message erased the picture and appeared.
A couple pngs that failed and one that previewed fine are attached, also the powershell output.

[socratis]

@Scott
I tried it. No dice. No crash. Nothing.

Then I had an idea... I thought, what if I installed the Direct3D basic drivers instead of the (experimental) WDDM ones?

Guess what happened in the next attempt... SPECTACULAR CRASH !!!

COM Surrogate has stopped working
A problem has caused the problem to stop working correctly
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

@York
I'm almost certain that you installed the Guest Additions (GAs) while having started in safe mode and you installed the basic Direct3D drivers, not the WDDM ones. First I need you to confirm if that's the case. Second, do you mind updating the GAs, and trying the WDDM ones? You don't have to boot Windows in safe mode to do this.

[mpack]

WinSxS is a meta system folder. There's no telling what it might contain, I certainly wouldn't attempt to preview files in that folder. AFAIK this folder only holds copies of (or links to) things that are stored elsewhere, so it would be better IMHO if you found the original. If you can't find the original then it could be a truncated file, so I'd leave it alone.

[socratis]

You wish is my command . I found the originals at:

   C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\SlideShow.Gadget\*.jpg | *.png

In fact every PNG or JPEG that I tried, creates the same error. Thumbnails are OK, double-clicking them which opens them with Windows Picture Viewer (WVP) causes the crash, opening them with Paint works OK.

EDIT:
I run into the following; The file:

   C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT\MCT-CA\Wallpaper\CA-wp2.jpg

crashes the WPV, but if you open the same file from:

   C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-m..ttheme-ca-component_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_9c90b2572b625b49\CA-wp2.jpg

everything is peachy! There are several "twin files" that exhibit this symptom.

Funny detail? The files are identical! I cmp'ed them, diff'ed them, shasum'ed them. Like two drops of water. This is getting interesting...

[socratis]

OK, it's getting more and more interesting. Now my conclusion is that I have no clue on what's going on. I copied the two images mentioned on my desktop (with different names). Start double-clicking at them. Sometimes the crash would come up, sometimes it wouldn't. Both images. Maybe a little less with the one from the winsxs directory, but nothing conclusive. On a reboot, this might be the same, might be different. 1 may crash then it previews OK. 2 may preview, then it crashes!

This is a weird one...

[York]

Thanks for everyone.
The problem has be solved by installing the 3D full Guest Addition . Forgive me for a VBox newbie.
Once again thank you everyone.

[socratis]

Well, it's not about being a new user or not. This feels and looks like a bug in the XPDM (Direct3D) 3D acceleration drivers. If I have some time I'll try to go back a couple of versions and see if it is a regression.

[RiverMM]

Hi dude, I think it's very easy to deal with this issue all by yourself. You know that Windows has a Photo Viewer, and you can download it and install it, then you can freely check your photos again. Or if you like to modify the photos at the same time of previews, then a software, [URL removed] can deliver your hands to preview photos as well as fast beautify them.

[socratis]

I'm sorry, but this does not answer the original problem in any way, shape or form. Having a 3rd party application does not explain the differences between the two options of 3D hardware acceleration.

I have removed the reference to the 3rd party application that has nothing to do with the problem that VirtualBox seems to have.

[mpack]

RiverMM looks like a spammer, but not a bot. I just deleted another similarly inappropriate post which linked to irrelevant 3rd party picture viewing crapware. If there's any reoccurence then I'd suggest that a ban is in order.

Re the original problem, on reviewing it I suspect that the problem has to with multiple streams attached to a single NTFS file. So it isn't the graphics part that's the problem: which explains what puzzled me, and explains why Socratis got different results with apparantly identical files.

In hindsight I have had exactly the same issue with a VirtualBox VM in the past, except the file was a .zip and the secondary stream marked the file as a download, so windows could display the "do you really want to <whatever> this file?

I didn't report it because I can't think of any reason why VirtualBox would care about how many file streams an NTFS file has. In fact even this might be indirect: it might be something to do with funny I/O while fetching the secondary stream, or a funny modal behaviour from the dialog box.

It would be great if we could pin it down to something reproduceable and raise a ticket for investigation.

[socratis]

It doesn't happen anymore with 5.1.3 test build 109189 with GAs 109168 5.1.2 r108956 with the GAs that come with VirtualBox. I guess it was fixed (?) at some point...

[socratis]

Oops, it seems that I mixed up the versions. I was running the stock 5.1.2 version. Sorry about that...