| Windows Photo Viewer | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Screenshot of Windows Photo Viewer | |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
| Operating system | Windows Picture and Fax Viewer:Windows Photo Viewer:
|
| Predecessor | Imaging for Windows,Windows Photo Gallery |
| Successor | Microsoft Photos |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | windows |
Windows Photo Viewer (formerlyWindows Picture and Fax Viewer)[1] is animage viewer included with theWindows NT family of operating systems. It was first included withWindows XP andWindows Server 2003 under its former name. It succeedsImaging for Windows. It was temporarily replaced withWindows Photo Gallery inWindows Vista[2] but was reinstated inWindows 7 with its current name.[3]
Windows Photo Viewer can show individual pictures, display all pictures in a folder as aslide show, reorient them in 90° increments, print them either directly or via an online print service, send them in e-mail orburn them to a disc.[3][4][5] Windows Photo Viewer supports images inBMP,JPEG,JPEG XR (formerly HD Photo),PNG,ICO,GIF andTIFF file formats.[6]
Windows Photo Viewer isdeprecated inWindows 10 and later in favor of aUniversal Windows Platform app calledPhotos. The program can no longer be accessed by normal means, however it can be re-enabled by editing the registry.[7][8]
Compared to Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, changes have been made to the graphical user interface in Windows Photo Viewer.[citation needed] Whereas Windows Picture and Fax Viewer usesGDI+,[9] Windows Photo Viewer usesWindows Imaging Component (WIC)[10] and takes advantage ofWindows Display Driver Model.[11]
AlthoughGIF files are supported in Windows Photo Viewer, Windows Photo Viewer only displays the first frame of theanimated GIF[12] whereas Windows Picture and Fax Viewer displaysanimated GIFs in full. Windows Picture and Fax Viewer was also capable of viewing multi-page TIFF files, (except those that employ JPEG compression)[13] as well as annotating the TIFF files.[14][15] Windows Photo Viewer, on the other hand, has added support for JPEG XR file format[6] andICC profiles.[16][17]
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.[18]
Also, regarding ICC Profiles, 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.[19]
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.[20] However, it can be brought back in Windows 10 and later with registry editing, by 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.[7][8]
Windows Photo Viewer itself remains built-in into Windows and is still set by default forTIFF files with the extensions ".tif" and ".tiff".[7][8][21]
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.
