Symptoms:

• Windows Live Photo Gallery: Right clicking on an image (.jpg, .png) and selecting the context menu item "Open file location" should open the containing folder in explorer. Instead, I get an error dialog stating "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel."
• Chrome: After downloading a file (of any type), clicking the down arrow on the download status bar at the bottom and clicking "Show in folder" results in the same error dialog mentioned above.

I'm using Windows 7.

I'm pretty sure this is a registry entry gone bad but I've been unable to locate any information about this specific problem.

It's not a file type association problem as I am not trying to open the files concerned, I'm trying to open an explorer window at the location for the file.

I've found a similar issue that somebody had with explorer itself. However, the suggested registry fixes here for "Folder", "Directory" and "Drive" did not solve the problem. Also, If I use the searchbar in explorer to do a search, right click on a file and choose "Open file location", explorer jumps to that location without any trouble.

I have not yet identified other programs with this issue.