Can't open photos or videos in Windows 10 "elements not found"

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Community and Thank you for posting your query.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused, I will certainly assist you with this issue.

Please answer the below questions to assist you better.

1. How exactly you are trying to open the photos and videos. Is it through photos app and Windows Media Player app?

2. What kind of video files are you trying to play? Did you try to open the pictures on Windows photo gallery?

3. What is the make and model of the computer?

4. Did you make any changes to the computer prior to this issue?

You may try the below methods and check if it helps.

Method 1: "no element found" message happens because there is no default application set for viewing the photos, video etc. Right click and choose, Open With and manually choose the program to open the file and check if you face similar issue.

You may also follow the below steps to set default program for a particular file type in Windows 10 and check if it helps.

1. In the search option of the taskbar type default program and press enter.

2. Now select “Associate a file type or protocol with a program”.

3. Now select the Extension for which you want to set default program and click on change program.

4. Select the program and click on OK.

Method 2: I suggest you to boot the Desktop system in Clean Boot and check if the problem exists.

This helps eliminate software conflicts that occur when you install a program or an update or when you run a program in Windows. It starts Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs.

How to perform a Clean Boot in Windows:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

(The above link also applies to Windows 10).

Note: After troubleshooting, refer to this section "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting" in the above link.

Method 3: Let us run SFC scan by following the below steps and see if it brings any difference.

System File Checker is a utility in Windows that allows users to scan for corruptions in Windows system files and restore corrupted files.

The sfc /scannow (System File Checker) command scans all protected system files, and replaces incorrect, corrupted, changed, or damaged versions with correct Microsoft versions.

1. Press ‘Windows + X’ keys.

2. Click on ‘Command Prompt (Admin)’ to bring up an elevated command prompt.

Note: Click ‘Yes’ if it prompts for permission.

3. In the command prompt type in the following command and then press Enter.

sfc /scannow

To close the Administrator: Command prompt window, type Exit, and then press Enter.

Reference:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-desktop/explorerexe-element-not-found/dd4cc6aa-04fd-4f1d-b776-a5efc9e2c3a2

Hope the information helps. Do reply if you need further assistance, we will be happy to help you.

Thank you.

I have this (and other) problem(s) with windows 10 too, on a different user account!

Everything did work initially. Calculator stopped opening (different thread Navneet Anand Support Engineer) . Today I can't open pictures by double clicking, or right clicking and choosing "Open".

I am Trying to open .jpg/.gif/etc, Not Videos.

Other than changing the default Privacy settings, when I created the account, two months ago,(when I gave up windows 7 for 10) I made NO OTHER CHANGES to the windows 10 settings!

I have NOT installed any new software this month

I did not have this problem the previous time I accessed the affected user account.

Double clicking or right clicking and selecting "open" returns "element not found"

Right clicking and choosing "windows photo viewer" or win10 TWINUI Does open the picture.

I tried going to "Settings"-"System"-"default apps" and clicking "reset to windows default settings".

    That DID NOT WORK!

I tried changing the setting  for pictures, to an app that DID Work when I chose "Open with". That DIDN'T WORK either.

I found this thread when I searched, and will try some of the other possible fixes.

Windows 7 Pro-64 bit installed, translated to windows 10 pro-64 bit.

I used this sequence you posted:

1. In the search option of the taskbar type default program and press enter.
2. Now select “Associate a file type or protocol with a program”.
3. Now select the Extension for which you want to set default program and click on change program.
4. Select the program and click on OK

The settings for: .jpg/jpe/jpeg/jxr = TWINUI

I changed the setting for .jpg to Windows photo viewer (left over from Win 7. I like it better than TWINUI for viewing pictures!) and it works.

Just ended a chat with Microsoft tech, they would fix the problem for $149.00 and then fix any new "update" problems for no extra charge the rest of the year.  I declined.