The solution was finally found and is repeated from another thread below. But, the problem is, there is a number of us who don't

know what that entails. Could someone please explain the solution in a more user friendly way so that the rest of us could still

use Windows Photo Gallery?  You help would be much appreciated: 

I found this information on another thread:

"Fixed it on mine - its a bug that will be fixed in an upcoming driver.

For now - go to

C:\Program Files\Common Files\ATI Technologies\Multimedia

rename these files

amf-wic-jpeg-decoder32.dll

amf-wic-jpeg-decoder64.dll

to  something else, then restart the system

You lose the jpeg acceleration for now but when the new driver is released it will come back."

This appears to have fixed the issue for me...at least, temporarily. I've spent way too much time troubleshooting this issue. Microsoft and AMD should note this fix and make it readily available to others experiencing the same issue.