A few Windows 10 users have reported that they can’t open photos when they use the Photos app as the default image. When they were trying to open Pictures, they got the “The wait operation timed out” error instead. This kind of error message appears when there is an unhandled exception during the execution of a current request. Some users even got the same error message when they try to open Videos.
One of the basic things to do to fix this error is to simply restart Explorer on the Task Manager or restarting the PC by tapping the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys however, the problem may appear again unless you really go over the root cause of the problem so that you can fix properly fix it. So if you are one of the users experiencing this problem, there are a couple of workarounds you can try to resolve the problem.
Option #1 – Try to run the Troubleshooters in Windows 10

1. Type in troubleshooting in the search box and tap Enter to open the Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter.
2. Next, click on the “View All” option located on the top left pane.
3. And then select the “Windows Store Apps” from the list displayed.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts as you go over the troubleshooting process.

Note: Select the appropriate troubleshooter for the type of problem you have – for instance, if you receive the error when you were playing videos, you can run the Video Playback Troubleshooter from the Troubleshooters Settings page.
Option #2 – Try to reinstall the Photos app or the Movies & TV app

1. Type in powershell in the Start menu or Taskbar search box and right click on the PowerShell entry and then click “Run as administrator” option to open PowerShell as admin.

2. Click the Yes button when a User Account Control prompt appears.
3. Type the following command in the elevated PowerShell and tap Enter to view all the installed apps.

Get-AppxPackage –AllUsers

4. Scroll down and look for the entry named Microsoft.Windows.Photos and then copy its PackageFullName to the Notepad program.

Note: to find the Photos app entry, just right click on the title bar of PowerShell, click Edit, click Find and then type in Photos and click the Find next button. And to copy the PackageFullName, select PackageFullName (just refer to the illustration below) and then use the Ctrl + C hotkeys to copy it.

5. Next, execute the following command to uninstall the Photos app.

Remove-AppxPackage PackageFullName
Note: in the given command, please make sure that you replace the “PackageFullName” with the PackageFullName of the Photos app which you copied on the Notepad program earlier.
 

6. After uninstalling the Photos app from Windows 10, you have to get a fresh copy of it from the Windows Store. To do so, open the Windows Store app by clicking the Store app from the Start menu or searching for it.
7. Once you’ve opened Windows Store, type in Microsoft Photos in the search box and then click on the Microsoft Photos entry and click the Free button. If the Free button is grayed out or if you’ve got the Open button instead, try to close the Windows Store app and then open it again.

That should fix the problem. And depending on the speed of your internet connection, the Photos app should be installed and ready to use in about 2 to 10 minutes.
Solution #3 – Restart the BITS Service
Background Intelligent Transfer Service or BITS’ main function is to transfer files – both uploads and downloads – between a client and server and then provide necessary information regarding the progress of the related file transfers. So if you encounter this error, there could be something wrong with this service for the error to appear. You can try to fix the problem by simply restarting the BITS service. To do so, follow the steps below.

1. Tap Win + R keys to launch the Run dialog box.
2. And then type in msc in the empty field and click OK or tap Enter to open the Windows Services.
3. Under Windows Services, look for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) and right click on it and then from the menu, select Stop.
4. After that, right click on the service and select Start.
5. Next, check if the problem is fixed.

Solution #4 – Troubleshoot the problem in a Clean Boot State
You can try to perform a Clean Boot to start Windows. This definitely helps in overcoming any conflicts in software that usually occurs when you update your system or when you install a new application. To start, follow these steps:

1. Type in msconfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
2. From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
3. Clear the “Load Startup items” check box and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.

4. Next, click the Services tab and select “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box.

5. Click Disable all.
6. Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And to configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)

There is also a one-click solution known as PC Cleaner Pro you can try that might help you fix the “The wait operation timed out” Error in Windows 10. This is a system utility tool that helps in fixing lots of system issues such as corrupted files, corrupted registries and it also helps in optimizing your PC’s overall performance as it cleans out any junk files in your computer and other system issues that causes your PC to slow down. To use this tool, follow the instructions below.
Perform a full system scan using PC Cleaner Pro. To do so, follow the instructions below.

1. Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot
2. After that, the BIOSscreen will be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.

3. To navigate the Advanced Optionuse the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
4. Windows will now load the SafeMode with Networking.

5. Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

6. If done correctly, the Windows Run Boxwill show up.
7. Type in explorer http://www.fixmypcfree.com/install/pccleanerpro

A single space must be in between explorer and http. Click OK.

8. A dialog box will be displayed by Internet Explorer. Click Run to begin downloading PC Cleaner Pro. Installation will start automatically once download is done.

9. Click OK to launch PC Cleaner Pro.
10. Run the program and click the Click to Start Scanbutton to perform a full system scan.

11. After all the infections are identified, click FIX ALL.