Windows Photo Viewer

Windows Photo Viewer
DeveloperMicrosoft
Operating systemWindows Picture and Fax Viewer:
Windows Photo Viewer:
PredecessorWindows Picture and Fax Viewer:
Imaging for Windows
Windows Photo Viewer:
Windows Photo Gallery
SuccessorWindows Picture and Fax Viewer:
Windows Photo Gallery
Windows Photo Viewer:
Microsoft Photos
LicenseProprietary
WebsiteWindows Picture and Fax Viewer:
Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 5 January 2008)
Windows Photo Viewer:
Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2 December 2010)

Windows Photo Viewer (formerly Windows Picture and Fax Viewer) is an image viewer included with the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was first included with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 under its former name, succeeding Imaging for Windows. It was removed in Windows Vista and was replaced with Windows Photo Gallery, but was reinstated in Windows 7 under its current name.

Windows Photo Viewer can show individual pictures, display all pictures in a folder as a slide show, reorient them in 90° increments, print them either directly or via an online print service, send them in e-mail or burn them to a disc. It is deprecated in Windows 10 onwards in favor of a Universal Windows Platform app called Photos, and the program can no longer be accessed by normal means, however it can be re-enabled by editing the registry.

Features

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

This section is an excerpt from Features new to Windows XP § Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.[edit]

Windows XP includes Windows Picture and Fax Viewer which is based on GDI+ and is capable of viewing image formats supported by GDI+, namely, JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF (including animated GIFs), ICO, WMF, EMF and TIFF format files. It supersedes part of the functions of Imaging for Windows in previous versions of Windows.

The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is integrated with Windows Explorer for functions like slideshow, email, printing etc. and quickly starts up when an image is double clicked in Windows Explorer. It supports full file management from within the viewer itself, that is, right clicking the image shows the same context menu as the one shown when an image is right clicked in Windows Explorer. Images can be set as the desktop wallpaper from the context menu. It supports successive viewing of all images in current folder and looping through images, that is, after viewing the last image in a directory, it again shows the first image and vice versa. By default, images smaller than the user's display resolution are shown at their actual size. If an image is larger than the display resolution, it is scaled to fit the screen (Best Fit). Images can be zoomed in or out depending on the viewing area. When this is done, scroll bars allow for viewing of all areas of the image. It has Standard toolbar buttons for Delete, Print, Copy to and Open with. The Copy to button converts an image to a different format supported in GDI+, that is, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF or PNG. The Print button starts the Photo Printing Wizard which allows printing images with picture titles using various page layouts such as full page prints, wallet prints, contact/index sheets or certain fixed dimensions with the images cropped or rotated to fit the page. The wizard shows a preview of what the printed page will look like with the currently specified options. Windows Picture and Fax Viewer can also rotate images clockwise or anti-clockwise, start a slideshow of all or selected images in the folder, or e-mail them by selecting the "Send To Mail Recipient" option. Further options allow the image to be mailed full size, or in pixel dimensions of: 640 x 480, 800 x 600, and 1024 x 768. Using Tweak UI, the time between images during a slideshow can be adjusted.

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer recognizes embedded ICC V2 color profiles in JPG and TIFF files. GIF files are shown with full animation, even when zoomed. TIFF files can be annotated using the Annotation Toolbar which appears at the bottom of the screen. Lines can be drawn on the TIFF image and text added to it. Areas of the image can be selected and concealed. The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is also capable of viewing multi-page TIFF files. However TIFF images with JPEG compression are not fully supported. The last button on the standard toolbar opens the image for editing; by default, in Microsoft Paint; however any editing application can be registered for this button in the viewer. Windows Picture and Fax Viewer saves and remembers its window position and size and supports keyboard shortcuts for all of its operations.

Raw image formats, which are the preferred formats in professional photography are not supported, however, Microsoft released a later update called RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for Windows XP for viewing certain raw image files.

Unlike with Imaging for Windows, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer does not include the advanced features of said application.

Windows Photo Viewer

Windows Photo Viewer introduces a number of changes compared to Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Whereas the previous application used GDI+, Windows Photo Viewer uses Windows Imaging Component (WIC) and takes advantage of Windows Display Driver Model. The user interface is similar to that of Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista, but without the editing capabilities or the gallery view of the application it had replaced.

Windows Photo Viewer supports images in BMP, JPEG, JPEG XR (formerly HD Photo), PNG, ICO, GIF and TIFF file formats, with RAW, WEBP and HEIC formats being supported by third-party WIC codecs. Although GIF files are supported in Windows Photo Viewer, Windows Photo Viewer doesn't display any animated GIFs on its own and only shows the first frame whereas Windows Picture and Fax Viewer displays them in full. Windows Picture and Fax Viewer was also capable of viewing multi-page TIFF files (except those that employ JPEG compression) as well as annotating the TIFF files, whereas Windows Photo Viewer cannot, though it does handle multi-page WEBP files (if supported by a third-party codec). On the other hand, Windows Photo Viewer has added support for ICC Profiles (Windows Picture and Fax Viewer did have support for ICC Profiles but only for v2).

Bugs

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

Windows Photo Viewer

Some devices and Android phones are able to take photos and screenshots and have a custom ICC Profile being applied to said pictures, however Windows Photo Viewer will display an error when trying to display the picture with the message "Windows Photo Viewer can't display this picture because there might not be enough memory available on your computer" when an unknown ICC Profile is detected. There is a patch available on GitHub that fixes this behavior. Also, when a custom Display ICC Profile is applied after installing a Monitor driver, Windows Photo Viewer wrongly shifts the picture hue to a warm tint. This feature is intentional but is greatly exaggerated. This can be fixed by removing or replacing the Display ICC Profile.

Later versions of Windows

In support documentation, Microsoft states that Windows Photo Viewer is not part of Windows 10, and a user still has it only if they upgraded from Windows 7 or 8.1. However, it can be brought back in Windows 10 and later with registry editing, by manually adding the appropriate entries ("capabilities") in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Photo Viewer\Capabilities\FileAssociations. It is also possible to restore the Preview option in the context menu the same way. Third-party utilities are also available to facilitate activation of Windows Photo Viewer in newer Windows versions.

Windows Photo Viewer itself remains built-in into Windows as of 2025; up until Windows 11 version 25H2, Windows Photo Viewer was still set by default for TIFF files with the extensions ".tif" and ".tiff".

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer overview". Windows XP Professional Product Documentation. Microsoft Corporation. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  2. ↑ "What happened to the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer?". Windows Vista Help & How-to. Microsoft Corporation. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  3. 1 2 "View and use your pictures in Windows Photo Viewer". Windows 7 Help & How-to. Microsoft Corporation. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  4. ↑ "Windows Photo Viewer slideshow turns secondary monitor black". Microsoft TechNet Forums. Microsoft Corporation. 5 February 2010. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  5. ↑ "How to Run the Windows Photo Viewer Slide Show on a Secondary Monitor". WindowsSevenForums Tutorials. Designer Media Ltd. 2 October 2010. Archived from the original on 18 January 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 Tkachenko, Sergey (31 July 2015). "How get Windows Photo Viewer working in Windows 10". winaero.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Tkachenko, Sergey (29 July 2021). "How to Enable Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11". winaero.com. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  8. ↑ "You Cannot View TIFF Images Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer". Archived from the original on 4 March 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  9. 1 2 3 "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer overview". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 20 March 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  10. 1 2 3 "Windows XP Picture and Fax Viewer: Standard toolbar overview". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  11. ↑ "Microsoft Article ID: 288125". Archived from the original on 24 November 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  12. ↑ "Windows XP Picture and Fax Viewer: Annotation toolbar overview". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  13. ↑ "TIFF image files that are compressed in the JPEG format cannot be correctly opened". Archived from the original on 25 February 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  14. ↑ "Microsoft Download Center: Windows, Office, Xbox & More". www.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010.
  15. ↑ "Kodak/Wang Image OCX Controls | Some History". Ilixis. 29 February 2012. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  16. ↑ "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS11-029 – Critical". docs.microsoft.com. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  17. ↑ "Introduction (How to Write a WIC-Enabled Codec) (Windows)". Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft Corporation. 22 November 2010. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  18. ↑ "Windows Vista Display Driver Model". Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft Corporation. July 2006. Archived from the original on 23 February 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  19. 1 2 Understanding Picture File Types Archived 17 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ↑ Zhu, Sean (1 June 2010). "Why does Windows Picture Viewer does not show animated GIFs?". TechNet forum. Microsoft Corporation. Archived from the original on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2010. Q: I have noticed that in Windows 7, the Windows Picture viewer only displays the first frame of an animated GIF. Why is this? [~snip~] A: Hi, this is by design.
  21. ↑ "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer Annotation overview". Windows XP Professional Product Documentation. Microsoft Corporation. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  22. ↑ "Annotation toolbar overview". Windows XP Professional Product Documentation. Microsoft Corporation. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  23. ↑ You Cannot View TIFF Images Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer Archived 4 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ↑ "PUB2002: Prepress: Adobe PhotoShop CMYK TIFFs Display Colors Incorrectly". Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  25. ↑ "Patch "Out of memory" exception when opening images containing an unknown color profile". GitHub.
  26. ↑ "Delete Calibrated Display Profile to Increase Speed of Windows 7 Photo Viewer". My Digital Life. 24 January 2010. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  27. ↑ "Windows Vista Photo Gallery Yellow Tint Background Problem". My Digital Life. 11 July 2007. Archived from the original on 26 January 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  28. ↑ "Fix Windows Photo Viewer Yellow Tint Background". OptimWise.
  29. ↑ "Photo Viewer for Windows 10". Microsoft Support.
  30. ↑ "How to open .tif files without compromising on quality". Windows Report.