In fact, Windows 10 installs a large number of UWP apps by default so that they are used by default, just like Photos. These come pre-installed in the operating system and associated with certain file formats to open them by default.
How to bring back the classic Windows photo window
With all this, what Microsoft tries to do is promote the use of its modern applications, but not everyone jumps through the hoops. As we tell you, one of the ones that are activated by default is Photos, the default image viewer for Windows 10. The truth is that this proposal works quite well, it is practical and fluid. But with everything and with this, many opt to end up installing and using other third-party alternatives that are downloaded from the Internet.
Similarly, a good number of users still miss the return of the classic viewer they used in older versions of Windows. However, this sees how by default the classic Windows photo viewer that, for example, they used in windows 7, is not available, at least initially. Therefore, this is something that in these same lines we are going to solve in a simple way.
As you know firsthand, in Windows 10 Microsoft offers us many new programs that we found in previous versions of the system. Here comes the popular default app to open and see images, the classic Windows photo viewer. This is characterized precisely by its simplicity and by the few system resources it consumes, which makes it very fast. Hence one of the secrets of his success. To say that it is possible to reactivate it and bring it back to life, so we will show you how to achieve it.
Open the Windows registry editor
What we are talking about is something that we initially achieved through the Windows registry editor. Therefore, the first thing we will do is access this important element of the operating system. To do this we only have to type the command regedit in the search box start menu. Once the corresponding entry of the application is located, click with the right mouse button on it.
This will allow us to open the registry editor as an administrator, which is what we are interested in in this case. Keep in mind that here we are going to access an extensive list of entries that refer to both system elements and installed applications. This means that sometimes we carry out low-level modifications in Windows that require us to be the administrators of the software. Hence, the most advisable thing in most cases is to run this element with administrator permissions, as we have seen.
Of course, before making any changes in this section, to avoid possible problems and as a precaution, we recommend you make a registry backup as such. This is something that we achieve through the File / Export menu option, which creates a file that we save in a safe place.
As we will soon see firsthand, the number of entries available in the registry is enormous. But it must be taken into account that by default they are placed in alphabetical order, which makes it much easier for us to locate what we are really looking for.
Once we know all this, to find the entry that interests us at the moment, we will have to navigate to the following path of said Windows registry: Computer/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows Photo Viewer/Capabilities/FileAssociations
As you can imagine, this is one of the sections of the Windows registry that allows us to customize and modify the associations of the extensions. of file relating to the photos. What we are about to do here is modify said association and assign it directly to the photo viewer that interests us in this case.
Associate formats to the classic Windows photo viewer
Well, in the last entry that we indicated, FileAssociations, we look at the content of the panel on the right. Here what we see are a series of keys that in this case correspond to the file formats associated with the Windows Photo Viewer. Therefore, as few will appear by default, we are going to add all those formats for which we want to use this program that we tell you To do this we right-click on an empty area and select the option New / String Value and for example create a .JPG call.
Once the new entry is open, in the field called Value information we add the following: PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Tiff. Once the changes have been made, we only have to close the editor. Of course, it is worth mentioning that we can do this with as many formats as we want following the same process, an entry with its name for each format. To end this process, we look for a file with one of the associated formats, and right-click on it. In the Open with option we will see that the Windows Photo Viewer already appears as available.
Likewise, we can already establish it so that those photos always open with this same program, so we can now use it as in Windows 7. And there are many users who over the years have gotten used to using this viewer that we are talking about and that was present in previous versions of the system. Therefore, surely with this simple change in the registry, many will appreciate being able to continue using it in the most modern versions of the Microsoft proposal.
Use the classic photo viewer in Windows 11
Something similar to what we have mentioned and that we can do in Windows 10, we can carry out in the new version of the Microsoft operating system, Windows 11. Despite the fact that it is a system that has only been with us for a few months, many users of the previous version of the software are migrating to this one, among them those who still miss this photo viewer that we are mentioning here.
That is why to use this software that we are talking about in the latest version of Windows again, we can carry out the process in a similar way to what we have seen before. This means that we will have to open the Windows 11 registry editor through the regedit command. Once the corresponding window of the same appears, again we will have to navigate between the list of options and locate ourselves in the following path:
Computer/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows Photo Viewer/Capabilities/FileAssociations
In the event that we are usually going to work with photos in .jpg format, in the panel on the right we click with the right mouse button and select the option New / String value. We call it .JPG so we don’t get confused and assign it the value called PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Tiff. This is something that we can repeat as many times as we want with the formats that we want to associate from now on and open directly with the classic Windows photo viewer.
The classic photo viewer is worth it
The classic Windows 7 photo viewer had its time, a time when the use of mobile devices for taking photos was still in its early stages. For this reason, the application hardly offers us options to edit the photos. The only option included, without opening the image in Paint, is to rotate the image left and right as well as delete it. We do not have the option to crop the image, reformat it, annotate or any other function if it is available in the default Windows 10 and Windows 11 application to view and edit photos.
However, today it is still an excellent option to carry out a preview of all photos that we have done to eliminate all those that are out of focus, we don’t like the framing, are burnt or very dark, as long as you use an application to edit the images on your computer such as Photoshop or GIMP. The function that allows you to make photo slideshows is also available in the updated version of the application on Windows, so it is not a function that we are going to miss. The same happens with the Magnifying glass function, a function that allows us to zoom in or out of a certain area of the image.
In short, the classic Windows photo viewer is fine for superficially cleaning up the photos we’ve taken. Little more. By not including basic options necessary on a day-to-day basis, such as cropping images, the functionality of this application is greatly reduced.
Therefore, we could say that this program for viewing content in the form of images today is quite limited in functionality. Both the default applications that Microsoft offers us and those that we install from third parties, currently present us with some very interesting additional tools to be able to work effectively with our photos on the PC in a basic way.
Alternatives to Windows Photo Viewer
If, due to the limitations of the Photo Viewer, we consider that it is not really worth it, we can opt for one of the following alternatives, completely free alternatives and with many additional functions that will avoid having to pass the images through a Photoshop-like application.
Photos
The native Windows application that currently replaces the classic photo viewer is Photos. Photos is a complete application that not only allows us to view photos in practically any format, but also allows us to make simple modifications to the image, such as changing the orientation, cropping them, changing the tone and saturation, among other basic functions. that we may need at any time without having to resort to photo editors such as Photoshop. In addition, it also allows us to access the photos that we have stored in Apple’s iCloud, thus expanding its functionality to become an excellent alternative to the traditional Windows Photo Viewer.
irfanview
IrfanView is a complete photo viewing tool, an application that, despite having been on the market for many years and having barely redesigned it, is still an excellent option as an alternative to the Windows 7 Photo Viewer. It is compatible with the formats of The most used images, including support for RAW format images, allows us to add plugins to incorporate new functions as well as skins to modify the application icons. Includes a image converter to other formats and allows us to make slight modifications to the photographs.
IrfanView is a completely free that we can download directly from its developer’s website, which we can access through the following .
faststone
Another interesting option available for free to view and edit images is Faststone, an application that includes a large number of tools to work with images in a simple way, although we can also find advanced functions that allow us to add effects.
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