Windows – GIMP 2.6.11 on Windows 7 64-bit can’t open PNG files

64-bitgimpwindows 7

I am a long time user of GIMP. It works beautifully on Windows XP and Windows 2000.

The time has come to move on… to Windows 7. So I installed GIMP 2.6.11 on Windows 7 64-bit (straightforwardly taking all defaults), then tried to open a .png file.

But unlike in GIMP on Windows XP, instead of the image, I was greeted by the following message:

Opening C:\Users\rAndy\Pictures\sampleimage.png failed: Unknown file type

Now… I know that GIMP is perfectly capable of handling PNG files, so either GIMP for Windows is not compatible (yet) with Windows 7 64-bit or I failed to do something additional that is required with this version.

Have you been able to successfully use GIMP 2.6.11 on Windows 7 64-bit?

If so, what is the trick to make it work?

Update 1: I followed the 1st advice from @Ganesh R. below (running installer in XP SP2 compatibility mode) but it didn't help. This time, however, I noticed that a component named GIMP Python extension cannot be selected (see snapshot below). Could that be related?

enter image description here

Update 2: I just tried installing the older GIMP 2.4.7 using the same XP SP2 compatibility mode suggested by @Ganesh R. and it works!

Which suggests that the GIMP Python extension component has nothing to do with this.

Version 2.4.7 is good enough as an interim solution. It would be nice if version 2.6.x becomes available for Widows 7.

Best Answer

A quick google shows that may people have faced the same issue.

The official site just says Windows XP SP2 and above. This indrectly means that it is not supported on Windows 7.

Try reinstalling with Compatibility settings enabled and set to Windows XP SP2. (Right click on installer -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Check "Run this in compatibility mode" and set it to Windows XP SP2/SP3)

If this too fails to solve the issue, just download Windows XP Mode, install XP Mode, and use GIMP in the Windows XP VM.

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