Vista - Profile pic selection: The file you selected is not a valid imagefile

From what i can see this error has been haunting Messenger for at
least 4 years, and has nothing to do with the image file or the
version of Windows it occurs on.

FWIW I upgraded from Vista HP to Windows 7 Ultimate today, and found
that all my profile images had disappeared from Live Messenger.

When I tried to add any image, I got the above error "The file you
selected is not a valid image file". It would also not allow me to
apply any webcam image or video captured by Messenger.

Live Messenger upgraded itself to the latest version and the error
remains.

Suspecting an issue with data file permissions (which is a problem
with upgrades to Vista and Win7) I tried resetting them on all my
image data files, and the folders associated with Messenger using the
Take Ownership script. That helped with other programs but made no
difference for Messenger.

Greetings Mike,

As a starting point, you can rename the folder where Messenger stores your user data. First,
sign out/shut down Messenger, then you'll find this folder here:
\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger

Where username is your Windows username. Additionally, some of these folders will be hidden
by default, to see them simply press the
Alt key on the keyboard in any Windows Explorer window to bring up the toolbar, click Tools,
then Folder Options, then the View tab, and then choose 'Show hidden files and folders'.
After click OK, they should appear with the other folders.

Once you arrive at the folder, you'll see another folder with your Windows Live ID. Rename
this folder so Messenger can't find it -- for example example@xxxxxx would become
example@xxxxxx_.

After this sign into Messenger normally and Messenger will re-create a folder that it needs.
Test to see if you can add a display picture. Assuming you can, head back to the \Messenger
folder as before and you'll then have the unfortunate task of merging your existing folder
(which you renamed) with the newly created one. Specifically, what you'll want to merge is
their ObjectStore folders (look inside, you'll see them) and the .dt2, .idx, and sometimes
..png files within each (CustomEmoticons, UserTiles, etc.). If possible, I'd only do a couple
at a time and then sign in to test to make sure it hasn't broken Messenger.

If having the old data isn't that important to you personally, you can avoid the whole
merging process and just start using Messenger as per normal (assuming it's working). If the
problem wasn't solved, just sign out of Messenger, delete the newly created folder and rename
the old one.

--
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--





"Mike" <mikewilliams64@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:56f3cc80-87fc-4b02-8e97-dd0591400cdf@xxxxxx

Thank you Jonathan!

That did work for me.

I am curious as to why there is no Microsoft KB article for this (or
at least none discoverable) as there appears to be hundreds of similar
posts to mine on different forums, going back to at least 2005.

Hi Mike,

Re: KB -- Microsoft "consumer" based products don't really have the resources behind them
that the enterprise level products do, so there is limited KBs on them.

My brain is the KB

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--


"Mike" <mikewilliams64@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:99efdba4-ef1b-4a12-8e35-70f7837d0c76@xxxxxx