With the release of the tenth modification of Windows, changes affected not only the operating system itself, but also some of its components. So, for example, the developers introduced a new browser, installed a new “Photos” program by default for working with pictures, and added many more innovations. Alas, many did not like such decisions. Nevertheless, let us dwell separately on the Windows 10 photo viewer, evaluate its pros and cons, and also consider issues related to how to return the classic viewer or find a replacement for the standard applet in the form of alternative software products. But first, a few words about what a new application is and why it didn’t please users.
New Windows 10 Photo Viewer : General
The first step is to focus on some of the misconceptions of most users who are clearly unfamiliar with the work of the tenth modification of Windows, who think that a new application can easily be changed. The old Windows 10 photo viewer was only associated with the TIF and TIFF image formats. Try to open a picture of these types or any other format (except WEBP, which is not recognized by any of the available viewers and editors except for browsers) from the "Explorer".
In the best case, if the settings have not changed, you will be prompted to select a program, but it cannot be ruled out that the image will be opened just in the Photos application.
The fact that the new program is installed to view almost all types of graphics by default from the very beginning is also particularly indignant, and changing it in the system settings or choosing another application from the PCM menu (except for the pre-installed Paint and Paint3D editors) to set associations is impossible.
Another point is due to the fact that the developers of the new Windows 10 photo viewer have added some additional features to it in the form of simple tools for quickly creating slide shows or videos based on pictures with the addition of music tracks. But after all, most users use more advanced software packages for such purposes. In addition, legitimate doubts arise as to why then we need a "native" video studio, which was created in the image and likeness of the obsolete Movie Maker application? In the end, all this provokes users to return the classic application and is justified by the fact that the viewer should view the graphics, and not perform any additional actions with it (there are special editors for this). In addition, Windows’s own tools, even in terms of image editing, are still far from perfect and boast clearly limited toolkits.
Where is Windows 10 Photo Viewer located, and how do I run the program?
You can start the application in the simplest way through the usual Start menu, where in the list of installed programs you need to go down to the bottom and select the Photos applet.
You can also open the image file directly from Explorer. You will not find the application in the form of an executable file, because it is presented in the form of several software components and libraries, and the program shortcut, which, in theory, could be located in the Windows main menu folder (you need to look for it in each user directory in the system section with By clicking on the AppData and Roaming directories), the file manager is also missing.
How to return a classic application?
Since many people want to return to Windows 10 a standard photo viewer familiar from Windows 7, this will not work without interfering with the registry.
First, call the editor (regedit), in the HKLM branch, go down the partition tree, as shown in the image above, and find the Windows Photo Viewer directory, which contains the FileAssociations subfolder. On the right side of the window, you need to create for each format that you intend to open using the classic applet a new string parameter with the name corresponding to the extension and the value PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Tiff.
After that, go to the standard applications section through the options menu, click on the link for setting default parameters, go to the classic viewer section, select all the necessary formats and save the changes. Now you can right in the “Explorer” use the PCM menu for the selected graphic file, where the item “Open with ...” is located, with the help of which the classic applet is selected and the checkbox is selected for permanent (permanent) use of the application for all types of files with this extension.
Additional system tools and office suites
In some cases, you can use other programs from Microsoft, where the photo viewer Windows 10 clearly loses. It's about editing, because in a standard applet you can perform only the simplest operations. Here you can use either regular Paint or Paint3D. But these editors are not particularly interesting.
The viewer from the Office Picture Manager office suite and even the Paint.NET editor, which is closer to Photoshop in its capabilities, look much better.
Alternative software
How to enable the photo viewer in Windows 10 and in the new and old guises, figured out. But, since we are talking specifically about viewers, software from third-party developers still looks much better. For example, the notorious ACDSee package is very popular, but it is paid. Among the freeware, the most popular are the XnView and IrfanView class programs, which in their capabilities are not inferior to the paid analogue (and XnView also has a built-in audio player). However, among the software for viewing graphics that have some additional tools or advanced features, you can find a lot of interesting applications. In particular, the Galapix package, which enlarges any image to incredible sizes without loss of quality of detail, can be called one of the most unique and unlike anything. Alas, at the moment there is no version for Windows, and the program was originally created for use on Linux and Mac OS X.
Summary
As for summing up, we can only say with confidence that the innovation for viewing graphics has not taken root, despite the addition of new features. By and large, they turned out to be useless to anyone, and the standard application itself looks somehow unconvincing (to some it seems complicated, others don’t like the overloaded interface, still others complain about the presence of unnecessary functions, fourths are not happy with the fact that it’s just that it is impossible to replace or get rid of it altogether without the use of special techniques, etc.). But here, as they say, the taste and color ...