Unable to right click-open with "there was a problem starting shimgvw"

I am having an issue opening various file formats in various applications via the right-click "Open With" context menu. Every time I try, I get the following error message:

there was a problem starting C:\Windows\shimgvw.dll
A Dynamic Link Library (DLL) initialization routine failed.

It doesn't matter what file type I right-click on or what program I tell it to open with, that error message occurs every single time.

I Googled the problem but only other unrelated results about shimgvw.dll showed up and all of which are really old, like 2007 and earlier, None of which even mentions Windows 7. There is nothing regarding opening files with right-click menu or Windows 7 and this error message.

Does anybody know what the problem could be and how do I fix this? Thanks

I would run a System File Check (SFC) to see if there are any errors that can or can't be fixed.
You might need to run it up to 3 times to fix errors.
Here is the tutorial:
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker