Nothing so far has worked to restore the original My Pictures icon to the folder or enable the Location tab that all special folders have in their Properties.
So aside from what I've already tried, I'm wanting to know how I can either restore the old My Pictures folder or make the current one I have "official". Would really appreciate an answer.
TO GET THE DEFAULT ICON BACK ONLY
Right-click on the new My Pictures folder and select the Properties option. Go to the Customize tab, and then in the Folder Pictures section, select the Restore Default option, and press Apply and then OK. Now check the folder for the default icon, etc.
TO GET THE DEFAULT ICON AND LOCATION TAB BOTH BACK
Run the below batch script so just save the logic to a .CMD or a .BAT file on your Windows PC somewhere with the issue, double-click, let it complete, then check to confirm all is back to normal.
@echo on taskkill /f /im explorer.exe timeout /t 2 /nobreak >nul if not exist "%UserProfile%\Pictures" mkdir "%UserProfile%\Pictures" reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "My Pictures" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Pictures" /f reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" /v "My Pictures" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %%USERPROFILE%%"\Pictures" /f attrib +r -s -h "%USERPROFILE%\Pictures" /S /D timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul start explorer.exe GOTO EOF SOURCE: Two Method Instructions