"Not Implemented" when clicking on photos in Windows Explorer

My PC was out of commission for the past 3 months (everything's a process with a mini tower), and have just discovered this issue within the past week or so.

I went online and found complaints that MS has decided to eliminate PHOTOS and only use Gallery, which is probably why Photos isn't working anymore. But there was no fix for the issue of not being able to open .png or.jpg files.

To anyone just checking in and didn't go through the first couple of pages of responses, do so. A user, through some frantic searching, probably, discovered that the Photo App has an option to install Photo Legacy, which is the new name for the old app. Doing this, then designating it as the default, should do the trick.

The idea that after years and one install that the answer is to reinstall windows is totally unacceptable.

I am having the EXACT same problem as described. Take the .jpg out of a folder and put it on the desktop, then photos opens it with no problem. BUT THIS SHOULDN'T BE NECESSARY! Microsoft fix it so Photos opens the file while in the folder (like it use to before the update)!!!!

The two updates that were installed for me on 10/31/2024 where KB5045594 and KB5045991 and this problem started. Are these the updates that other people installed just prior to this issue?

EDIT:

So after spending a hour on tech support via @MB_999 suggestion at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/home/contact all they could come up with is to:

1. Go back to a restore point prior to the Windows updates (a week ago 10/31/2024 and then I would have to restore piecemeal my work done in the last week from my nightly backups).
2. Perform an in place update to Windows 11 (I have been avoiding this like the plague though I am happy with my new laptop running Windows 11)
3. Create a new user profile (user account) and move all my stuff over to that new user. Unfortunately, because the bug takes some period of time to manifest itself I don't know how long I would have to stay logged into this other profile to see if it happens in the new profile, but I might log into it after I finish for the day and see if 12 -14 hours is long enough to cause the problem to manifest itself. Then at least I can prove it isn't the profile.

But this is all taking up way to much of my time to fix Photos...hmmmm...I'm going to find another option. I don't ever use it for anything other than previewing photos anyway so that seems like a simpler solution to all this.

But please, everyone with this issue should open a support case so they see just how many people are having this issue. There is no way that we all ended up with a corrupt profile at the same time.

I tried your "Clean Boot" only to work for about 30 minutes or so. I have done it 3 times now and I continually get the "Not Implemented" each time. MS needs to allow us to reverse the last update or get this fixed ASAP.