Windows Photo Viewer (formerly Windows Picture and Fax Viewer)[1] 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. It was temporarily replaced with Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista,[2] but was reinstated in Windows 7.[3] This program succeeds Imaging for Windows. In Windows 10, it is deprecated in favor of a UWP app called Photos, although it can be brought back with a registry tweak.[4]
Windows Photo Viewer can show individual pictures, display all pictures in a folder as a slideshow, reorient them in 90° increments, print them either directly or via an online print service, send them in email or burn them to a disc. The program supports images in BMP, JPEG, JPEG XR, PNG, ICO, GIF, and TIFF file formats.[5]
Description[]
Windows Photo Viewer is a simple program; it does not have a menu that you can access from the Start menu. Instead, it is opened when accessing an image file.
A row of functions appears below the picture that was opened. These allow the picture to be rotated, deleted, or zoomed into. The center buttons allow the previous or next picture from the same folder to be shown, or to start a slide show with all pictures.
The top menu bar has functions. "File" has the options to copy the picture to the clipboard, view the properties of the image file, or make a copy of the image file. Additionally, the picture can be printed, sent via email, burned to a disc, or opened using another program.
The right-click menu also allows the image to be opened using another program, set as the desktop background, or seen in its location in Windows Explorer. It also allows the picture to be rotated, copied, deleted, or show its properties.
History[]
Windows XP was the first version of Windows to include the program, which was known as Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. It is also a component of Windows Server 2003.
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer was removed in Windows Vista, instead replaced by Windows Photo Gallery, which has more features such as sorting and editing images.
This change was reverted in Windows 7, and the program was renamed to Windows Photo Viewer. This version of the program added the ability to zoom into the picture using the scroll wheel on a mouse.
Later versions of Windows include the Photos app as the default program to open picture files. However, Windows Photo Viewer remains, hidden within the system files. It can be set as the default program for opening images in Settings.
References[]
- ↑ "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer overview". Windows XP Professional Product Documentation. Microsoft. Archived from the original on December 2, 2010.
- ↑ "What happened to the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer". Windows Vista Help and How-to. Microsoft. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016.
- ↑ "View and use your pictures in Windows Photo Viewer". Windows 7 Help and How-to. Microsoft. Archived from the original on January 5, 2008.
- ↑ Tkachenko, Sergey (July 31, 2015). "How to get Windows Photo Viewer working in Windows 10". winaero.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020.
- ↑ "Understanding Picture File Types". Archived from the original on July 17, 2013.
External links[]
- Windows Picture and Fax Viewer overview (archived January 5, 2008)