Windows – How set set .gif files to open with windows photo viewer

I know this is an old post, but I think this issue is due to a corrupted or damaged profile. I'm having the same problem on a Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium laptop and this error occurs on all images being opened by Windows Photo Viewer no matter the location or permissions. When I log in with another profile, it works fine.

This is not my laptop, and it has a bit of an unusual setup, which is the C:\Users folder is actually a symbolic link to a folder on a different drive (F:\Users). Sometimes the symbolic link gets damaged and I have to repair it. This issue occurred after I fixed the symbolic link and ran some scans to remove potential malware, etc. I am not sure when this issue occurred, but I thought maybe this information might help others, since even now (4 years after this was first posted) I still can't find a proper solution for this to fix it, but at least I've narrowed it down to the profile.

EDIT:

Okay, I fixed my issue. It turned out the permissions on the folder "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Temp\" was screwed up (meaning there were no permissions set and no owner).

STEPS TO FIX:

1. I had to take ownership of the folder
2. Remove all existing permissions
3. Select "Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent" and click OK until all the permission windows are closed.

In fact, it is a bug in 7-Zip. As program's author Igor Pavlov explains, the following happens when Windows Photo Viewer is set as default image viewer in Windows:

The Program1 (some photo file handler) calls another Program2 (windows photo viewer) and closes Program1. But 7-Zip waits only Program1. So it deletes image from temp folder. I plan to fix that problem in future.

The problem still exists in latest stable 7-Zip 9.20, though I didn't check if it is fixed in latest alpha.

There is a not-so-difficult workaround: use alternative image viewer as your default one. Personally, I use FastStone, but XnView etc. should be fine too.