Activate Unicode Plugin

Hello Experts,

I have had a bunch of images for the past 9 months on Win 7 Home
Premium. Now when I try to open them I get 'Unknown File Format. The
prog does not recognize any of the images.'

Then a message came: For unicode file names please reactivate the
Unicode Plugin in Properties -> Languages. I searched the 'All Control
Panel Items' for 'Unicode Plugin' and it came up with 0.

TIA

Loonie wrote:
> Hello Experts,
>
> I have had a bunch of images for the past 9 months on Win 7 Home
> Premium. Now when I try to open them I get 'Unknown File Format. The
> prog does not recognize any of the images.'
>
> Then a message came: For unicode file names please reactivate the
> Unicode Plugin in Properties -> Languages. I searched the 'All Control
> Panel Items' for 'Unicode Plugin' and it came up with 0.
>
> TIA

Use Irfan.

Paul in Houston TX wrote:
> Loonie wrote:
>> Hello Experts,
>>
>> I have had a bunch of images for the past 9 months on Win 7 Home
>> Premium. Now when I try to open them I get 'Unknown File Format. The
>> prog does not recognize any of the images.'
>>
>> Then a message came: For unicode file names please reactivate the
>> Unicode Plugin in Properties -> Languages. I searched the 'All Control
>> Panel Items' for 'Unicode Plugin' and it came up with 0.
>>
>> TIA
>
> Use Irfan.

The error messages appear to be coming from Irfanview :-)

*******

So, you'd start by going to the Irfanview program interface, rather than
looking in Control Panels (i.e. blaming Windows 7). In a Google search,
I can find reference in that error message, to going to "Properties -> Languages".
Now, I don't have Irfanview on any of my computers, so I can't verify any
of that or follow along.

The same Google search, also showed that some people have this problem,
because the files themselves are damaged. If they were stored on
optical media for example, it's possible the file structure is
still there, but the data itself is damaged or missing.

You could try opening the image files with some other program, to
see if that program agrees or not. The best program I know of for
that, doesn't run on PCs. On the PC, I use "GIMP", but it probably
doesn't have a maximum of file types built into it. There is bound
to be something better than this.

[ GIMP for Windows ]

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

If after installation, that program can open it, and IrfanView cannot,
then it's an Infanview problem. If both programs cannot open it,
then the file itself could be damaged.

Paul

Paul wrote:
> Paul in Houston TX wrote:
>> Loonie wrote:
>>> Hello Experts,
>>>
>>> I have had a bunch of images for the past 9 months on Win 7 Home
>>> Premium. Now when I try to open them I get 'Unknown File Format. The
>>> prog does not recognize any of the images.'
>>>
>>> Then a message came: For unicode file names please reactivate the
>>> Unicode Plugin in Properties -> Languages. I searched the 'All
>>> Control Panel Items' for 'Unicode Plugin' and it came up with 0.
>>>
>>> TIA
>>
>> Use Irfan.
>
> The error messages appear to be coming from Irfanview :-)
>
> *******
>
> So, you'd start by going to the Irfanview program interface, rather than
> looking in Control Panels (i.e. blaming Windows 7). In a Google search,
> I can find reference in that error message, to going to "Properties ->
> Languages".
> Now, I don't have Irfanview on any of my computers, so I can't verify any
> of that or follow along.
>
> The same Google search, also showed that some people have this problem,
> because the files themselves are damaged. If they were stored on
> optical media for example, it's possible the file structure is
> still there, but the data itself is damaged or missing.
>
> You could try opening the image files with some other program, to
> see if that program agrees or not. The best program I know of for
> that, doesn't run on PCs. On the PC, I use "GIMP", but it probably
> doesn't have a maximum of file types built into it. There is bound
> to be something better than this.
>
> [ GIMP for Windows ]
>
> http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
>
> If after installation, that program can open it, and IrfanView cannot,
> then it's an Infanview problem. If both programs cannot open it,
> then the file itself could be damaged.
>
> Paul

Yup. Thank you for the info.
I just went through about 500 photos and found one that
gave that exact message.
It had zero bytes.
As a further test, I created a zero byte jpg file.
It gives the same message.
I wonder if the op has empty files?

Loonie wrote:
> Hello Experts,
>
> I have had a bunch of images for the past 9 months on Win 7 Home
> Premium. Now when I try to open them I get 'Unknown File Format. The
> prog does not recognize any of the images.'
>
> Then a message came: For unicode file names please reactivate the
> Unicode Plugin in Properties -> Languages. I searched the 'All Control
> Panel Items' for 'Unicode Plugin' and it came up with 0.
>
> TIA

Thanks to the other Paul's reply I did some testing:

I just went through about 500 photos and found one that
gave that exact message.
It had zero bytes.
As a further test, I created a zero byte jpg file.
It gives the same message.
I wonder if the op has empty files?

On 06/11/2011 20:59, Paul wrote:
> Paul in Houston TX wrote:
>> Loonie wrote:
>>> Hello Experts,
>>>
>>> I have had a bunch of images for the past 9 months on Win 7 Home
>>> Premium. Now when I try to open them I get 'Unknown File Format. The
>>> prog does not recognize any of the images.'
>>>
>>> Then a message came: For unicode file names please reactivate the
>>> Unicode Plugin in Properties -> Languages. I searched the 'All
>>> Control Panel Items' for 'Unicode Plugin' and it came up with 0.
>>>
>>> TIA
>>
>> Use Irfan.
>
> The error messages appear to be coming from Irfanview :-)
>
> *******
>
> So, you'd start by going to the Irfanview program interface, rather than
> looking in Control Panels (i.e. blaming Windows 7). In a Google search,
> I can find reference in that error message, to going to "Properties ->
> Languages".
> Now, I don't have Irfanview on any of my computers, so I can't verify any
> of that or follow along.
>
> The same Google search, also showed that some people have this problem,
> because the files themselves are damaged. If they were stored on
> optical media for example, it's possible the file structure is
> still there, but the data itself is damaged or missing.
>
> You could try opening the image files with some other program, to
> see if that program agrees or not. The best program I know of for
> that, doesn't run on PCs. On the PC, I use "GIMP", but it probably
> doesn't have a maximum of file types built into it. There is bound
> to be something better than this.
>
> [ GIMP for Windows ]
>
> http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
>
> If after installation, that program can open it, and IrfanView cannot,
> then it's an Infanview problem. If both programs cannot open it,
> then the file itself could be damaged.
>
> Paul

Thanks again Paul. I haven't had the time to get to it yet :-(