Fix Start and Freeze Issues with Windows Live Photo Gallery in Windows 7

A fix has been provided by Microsoft for customers that have come across issues with Windows Live Photo Gallery in Windows 7.

It appears that a range of users have been reporting problems to the Redmond company related to the photo viewing components of the Windows Live Essentials suite.

According to the software giant glitches have been reported not only with Windows Live Photo Gallery running on Windows 7, but also for versions of the rich client that are being used in conjunction of Windows Vista and Windows XP.

In certain scenarios customers find that they cannot start Windows Live Photo Gallery at all. At the same time, even when Photo Gallery does start, it can freeze, not allowing users to get anything done.

An automatic fix is available from Microsoft through KB944221. The Windows Photo and Slideshow Problems troubleshooter is designed to resolve problems related to Photo Gallery freezing or not starting.

According to the software giant, at fault for the glitches experienced by customers is a database corruption.

As long as the Photo Gallery database is corrupted, the application will not function under normal parameters.

The automatic fix provided by the Redmond company is designed to regenerate the Windows Live Photo Gallery database in order to allow the app to not only track the users’ photos and videos but also to function correctly.

Microsoft has also detailed the steps that customers can follow provided that they want to resolve the problem manually.

“Windows XP

Close Windows Live Photo Gallery.
Click Start, click Run, type %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Photo Gallery, and then click OK.
Delete any existing instance of "OLD_Pictures.pd4" and "OLD_Pictures.pd5."
Locate and then right-click "Pictures.pd4" or "Pictures.pd5."
Rename "Pictures.pd4" to "OLD_Pictures.pd4" or rename "Pictures.pd5" to "OLD_Pictures.pd5."

Windows Vista

Close Windows Live Photo Gallery.
Click Start, click Run, type %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery, and then click OK.
Delete any existing instance of "OLD_Pictures.pd4" and "OLD_Pictures.pd5."
Locate and then right-click "Pictures.pd4" or "Pictures.pd5."
Rename "Pictures.pd4" to "OLD_Pictures.pd4" or rename "Pictures.pd5" to "OLD_Pictures.pd5."

Windows 7

Close Windows Live Photo Gallery.
Click Start, click Run, type%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Photo Gallery, and then click OK.
Delete any existing instance of "OLD_Pictures.pd4" and "OLD_Pictures.pd5."
Locate and then right-click "Pictures.pd4" or "Pictures.pd5."
Rename "Pictures.pd4" to "OLD_Pictures.pd4" or rename "Pictures.pd5" to "OLD_Pictures.pd5."