Classic Shell: Forum

I use the Windows 7 style start menu with Windows 8.1 and have this odd problem with CS & Windows Photo Viewer.

If I click the Pictures shortcut on the start menu and open a picture in the window which opens, I can not see the properties of the photo when I click on properties in the context menu. If I open Pictures by opening File Explorer from the taskbar and then navigating to Pictures or using the jump list shortcut, everything works normally.

If I click Downloads (for example) on the start menu and open a picture, this problem does not happen. It's only happening in the pictures library/shortcut.

Doesn't sound like a Classic Shell problem. What if you use Explorer to go to the Pictures library and open the file from there?

Yes everything works fine if I use Explorer instead. If I open the Pictures library using the start menu's shortcut this happens. I can not view the properties of the picture (in Photo Viewer) and the metadata is read only (if I view the properties in explorer).

Just to get make sure I'm understanding this:
1) You open the Pictures library in Explorer from the start menu, then you open a picture using the photo viewer, than you look at the properties - doesn't work.
2) You open a new Explorer window with Win+E, navigate to the same Pictures library, open the same picture and the properties work.

Is that correct? When you look at the two Explorer windows (one from the start menu and one opened manually) do you see any differences, like something different in the address bar, different contents in the folder, or something?

Yes that's correct

Now that you have mentioned it, the one opened by the start menu opens "Libraries\Pictures" while explorer opens "This PC\Pictures".

Start menu & Explorer respectively.

The problem is not caused by the start menu. You can open Explorer then go to Libraries (near the bottom), then open the Picture library. You will see the same problem. It is specific to Windows 8.1. Both Windows 7 and 8 work correctly from the library.

You can make the start menu open the This PC\Pictures folder instead of the library. Go to the Customize Start Menu tab, click on the "Pictures library" entry and change it to just "Pictures".

In a future version I will consider changing the default menu for Windows 8.1 to not use libraries.

Thanks for the workaround I hope MS fixes the library behaviour in a future update/9.