My pictures open fine on the desktop, but when I try to open my pictures with the start menu app, it just keeps loading and won't work. I tried restarting my laptop several times but nothing happens. I saw a solution to go to desktop and click libraries and click delete. then to right click on it again and click restore default libraries. but I'm scared that I will lose all my photos. does it work? It's been happening for a couple months now. I also tried sending my photos to my email then restoring the entire computer to the factory version, but it still won't work. any other solutions?

In the start menu apps, you got two apps namely "photos" and "photo gallery". In photo gallery, you can view your photos in desktop mode and in photos, you can view your photos in app mode.

It is better to take screenshots and show here or to windows support team, they might tell you the solutions.

Check out this link:-

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/viewing-photos

Hope that it helps!

Thanks! I'll try that