Windows Photo Viewer was a useful and simple tool in Windows 7, so it's puzzling that Microsoft I decided to phase it out steadily on later Windows releases in favor of Application "Photos" The fickle one.
These days, Microsoft has made it difficult to recover the photo viewer by removing the file. “exe” It's completely private. However, with a little trick, you can set it as your default photo viewer again. Here's how.
If you upgrade from Windows 7/8
If you're running Windows 10 after upgrading from Windows 7 or 8, there's good news: you still have registry entries for Windows Photo Viewer On your computer, there should be no problem setting it up. Photo Viewer As the default setting.
One option is to find a file. JPEG Or PNG Or any type of image files you want to associate with the program. Photo Viewer , right-click it, and then click Open with and select "Windows Photo Viewer".
If it is not there, click on “Choose another app"from list"opened by using”, then scroll down and tap on “More applications”, then scroll down to the bottom again, and tap on “Find another application on this computer", then go to C:\Program Files\Windows Image Viewer and select Windows Photo Viewer Executable.
If you don't have the image viewer Exe file
If you can't find the executable file, it means that your version of Windows didn't have it in the first place or Microsoft removed it in an update.
The image viewer is still on your computer, but as a file. “dll” Only, not as an executable file. To restore it, we'll need to create a new log file.
Fortunately, a user Tenforums Edwin I did a lot of work here, creating the code necessary to restore Photo Viewer to the Windows context menu.
Click below to see the code, then copy and paste it into a blank Notepad file.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dll]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dllshell]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dllshellopen]
"MuiVerb"="@photoviewer.dll,-3043"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dllshellopencommand]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,
00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,
25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,
00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,
6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,
00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,
5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,
00,31,00,00,00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dllshellopenDropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dllshellprint]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dllshellprintcommand]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,
00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,
25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,
00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,
6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,
00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,
5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,
00,31,00,00,00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsphotoviewer.dllshellprintDropTarget]
"Clsid"="{60fd46de-f830-4894-a628-6fa81bc0190d}"
After that, click on “File -> Save As"And save it as a file “.reg” , similar to what we did in the image below.
Once saved, go to New reg file In Windows Explorer, right-click on it, and then finally click "to merge".
The file should be successfully registered. Now, right-click on the image file and select “opened by using" And the "Choose another app”, you will see that Windows Photo Viewer is again there as an option (possibly after clicking “More applications“). Select it, then check the box.Always use this app to open files.".
conclusion
The fact that Windows Photo Viewer is so difficult to bring back to Windows 10 is a grim sign of Microsoft's somewhat insistent policy of migrating Windows users to the exact apps they want you to use. So consider this return to Photo Viewer a small challenge for Microsoft! If enough people do it, they might take notice and bring the photo viewer back.
