Starting with Windows 10, when you open an image file, the image would no longer be viewed in the Windows Photo Viewer. Instead, you'll be switched to the new Microsoft Photos, which is plagued with performance and reliability issues.

• Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10 Not Working
• Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10 Reinstall
• Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10
• Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10 Registry

While Windows Photo Viewer has been retired, it is still easy to use and lightweight program to access your digital photos on your PC. Unlike the Photos app, Windows Photo Viewer works faster and makes it easy for you to view the photos stored in the local drives.

The good news, is if you upgraded from Windows 7 or 8, it's easy to get the old Windows Photo Viewer back as you only have to change the default apps.

Users who have upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 might not be aware, but Microsoft has discontinued the Photo Viewer we had for years. Those who have done a clean install of Windows 10. Select Windows Photo Viewer listed on the app list to choose it as the default image viewer.; The Photo Viewer will now open whenever you click an image. If you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 on a desktop or laptop that originally came with Win 8.1 or 7, you’ll find that the Windows Photo Viewer is still there.

To do this, open the Windows 10 Settings > System > Default apps and select the Windows Photo Viewer as the desired option under the 'Photo viewer' section.

Exit the Settings menu, and you can now access the photos in Windows Photo Viewer. This works only if you upgraded from Windows 7 or 8, and you never did a fresh install or system reset.

For Windows 10 users who performed a clean install of the operating system, we instead need to use a Registry hack to get it back as described below.

How to restore Windows Photo Viewer

If you'd like to fix this on a fresh install of Windows 10 and restore Windows Photo Viewer, you can do it by editing the Registry:

1. Download the restore-windows-photo-viewer.reg Registry file hosted at BleepingComputer and save it to your desktop.
2. Double-click on the downloaded restore-windows-photo-viewer.reg file and Windows will prompt you if you want to run it. Click 'Yes' when you see security alert.
3. You will now be shown a User Account Control prompt asking if you would like Registry Editor to run. Click 'Yes' at this prompt.
4. Finally, you will now be shown a prompt asking if you would like to merge the registry file contents into the Windows Registry. Once again, click on the 'Yes' button to proceed.

Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10 Not Working

Once done, you can now access the Windows Photo Viewer, but there's a catch - you need to manually set the Photo Viewer as the default app for each image file type.

Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10 Reinstall

To do this, right-click on an image and click on 'Open with,' select 'Choose another app,' scroll to the bottom and select 'More apps,' and then select Windows Photo Viewer to set it as the default program for this image type.

You need to repeat the above steps for all other image file types that you wish to use Windows Photo Viewer by default.

One of the most critical programs I’ve always used is Windows Photo Viewer. It’s a lightweight image viewing program that has been built into Windows since XP. It’s a simple program and when set as the default photo viewing program in Windows, allows you to double click image files to preview them. It has back and forward buttons to cycle through additional image files in the same directory which makes it far superior to the Windows 10 Photos app which only allows you to look at one picture at a time.

If you install Windows 10 as a fresh copy and are not upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.1, you will notice that Windows Photo Viewer is absent with no way to enable it. It’s still built into Windows, but it’s hidden and must be enabled by adding a registry entry. If you upgraded to Windows 10 from a Windows 7 or 8.1 system, you can skip this step and go to the next section.

Enabling Windows Photo Viewer in the Registry

To enable Windows Photo Viewer, its registry entries need to be added. We have created a registry entry which does this. Click the link below to download it.

Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10

Once you’ve downloaded the registry entry simply double click it and run it. Next, we will make Photo Viewer the default image viewer.

How to Make Windows Photo Viewer the Default Image Viewer

To make Photo Viewer the default image viewer, you simply need to right click an image file, choose “Open with” and click “Choose another app”.

In the “How do you want to open this file?” box, click Windows Photo Viewer if it is in the list of applications. If you don’t see it as an option, click “More apps” to find it. Finally check the “Always use this app to open files” box before you click “OK.”

You need to repeat this process for each image file type you wish to associate Windows Photo Viewer with or you can take a shortcut by using another registry edit.

Included with the registry entry above, is another registry entry which makes Photo Viewer the default mage viewer for .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .tiff and .ico files.

Double click it and run the “Make Photo Viewer Default Image Viewer” registry and you’re done!

That’s all there is to it. Hopefully Microsoft maintains Photo Viewer but there’s no guarantee that they won’t remove it in a future update to Windows 10…

Windows Picture Viewer Windows 10 Registry