Comments on: How to change default picture viewer in Windows

By: Phuni

Phuni — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:26:48 +0000

Is there a way to do this via the registry? I need to change the default picture viewer on a couple of hundred PCs and don’t have the time to do this. I need to know the key in the registry. Thanks in advance.

By: Daphni

Daphni — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:36:12 +0000

Thanks so much. Have been going nuts trying to get out of Photoshop opening my pictures. first suggestion worked for me. again.

By: Raja

Raja — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:29:49 +0000

thanks for clearing my doubt abt this. I knew there had to be a way to change the default picture viewer.

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:58:09 +0000

Tom,

According to:
http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

That’s not true. Win7 is recommended, but it will run on XP and Vista. I know it will run (and well) because I’ve used it before Win7 came out (on both OS’s).

System Requirements

Minimum System

* Windows 7 (recommended),
or Windows XP SP2,
or Windows Vista
* 800MHz processor (dual-core recommended)
* 512MB of RAM
* 1024 x 768 screen resolution
* 200+ MB hard drive space
* Optional: 64-bit mode requires a 64-bit CPU and a 64-bit edition of Windows

By: Tom Armstrong

Tom Armstrong — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:20:58 +0000

Grayham – Just a note to anyone looking to use paint.net, their website says you should have Windows 7 to use it

By: catalina

catalina — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:32:22 +0000

YOU ARE AWESOME!!!! THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!

By: buia adriana

buia adriana — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:32:11 +0000

I cannot believe that it was so simple. it was very annoying for me because I could not open bitmap images anymore. thanks!

By: Tom Armstrong

Tom Armstrong — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:55:06 +0000

Thanks Graham – I tend to be a minimalist on my PC lately because it’s getting old (3 yr old laptop). Incidentally, I DO have Photoshop in addition to Paint. It’s just easier to pop into paint for a quick edit. I tend to grab maps from Google when I’m going somewhere, then pop into paint to write notes right on the map. It’s also easy to “uncolor” the map so I don’t have to waste ink. At any rate, I don’t need yet another graphics program on my PC right now but thanks for the tip, maybe when I get my next laptop which… I should start thinking of getting soon.

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:49:36 +0000

Re: #7

Tom, I use screen captures all the time. I would recommend to anyone to replace Paint with Paint.net. It’s free, get it here: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html. It’s much more powerful than Paint. And since we are talking about image editors (kinda) I thought I would bring it up. Someone who can’t afford to pony up for Photoshop, or need the full advanced capabilities and much more difficult to use “Gimp”, Paint.net fills the gap perfectly for me. I have Windows 7, and the “new” paint is a huge improvement, but still not better than Paint.net IMO.

Also, if it’s a website or a document I want to capture I use a .pdf printer (Cute PDF Writer). That way, I can have a nice looking document to save, and extract portions of text out later if need be. Of course, if it’s the graphics and not text you’re wanting then a screen-shot is much easier.

I found this thread because I’m looking to change the way the mouse behaves in MS Photo Viewer. The defaults are useless if you just want to use the mouse and not touch the KB (regular mode and slide-show). Does anyone know where those settings are, or is it hard-coded into the .exe? I was thinking a manifest file may exist, or maybe in the registry?

By: Tom Armstrong

Tom Armstrong — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:38:56 +0000

Hi Karen – First, go the folder where the picture with the .fmp file is located. Then, under “Tools” menu, select Folder Options”. Select the “View” tabs; scroll down to “hide extensions for known file types” and make sure it is NOT checked. Click “Ok”.
Now, back in the folder, click on the file – ONCE (don’t double click to open it) – and it allows you to rename the file. Make sure you give it a “.jpg” file name. It should ask you “are you sure”, just say Ok.
btw, I don’t know what a fmp file is. If it’s not in jpeg or bitmap format, then changing the extension still won’t help you. You’d have to find out what app is making the file and see if there’s a way to change it from there.
One last trick – if you ever see something on the screen and wish you could save it to a file, you can always do a screen capture, paste it into Paint and save it in any format you want!

By: Karen Tobey

Karen Tobey — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:27:47 +0000

OK, I have a picture and the extension on it is .fmp. Well the website does not allow them. So how do I change the extension to either .bmp or .jpg?

By: Tom Armstrong

Tom Armstrong — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:14:23 +0000

ok ok ok – I got that wrong – OPEN and PREVIEW are both controlled as you have described above. It’s “edit” on the right mouse click menu that I wanted to be different. I want to be able to change the default for. Right now, when I choose OPEN or PREVIEW, my bmp and jpg files use Windows Picture and FAX viewer. That’s what I want. When I right click and choose EDIT, the files open in PAINT. I want to change it so that EDIT will open the files in Photoshop but OPEN and PREVIEW will still open the files in Windows Picture and FAX viewer. – Anybody know how to change the default EDIT application?

By: Tom Armstrong

Tom Armstrong — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:02:18 +0000

Not quite right – This works to change the default application when you want to OPEN the file but it doesn’t change the default application used to PREVIEW the file. When you double click or right click and choose OPEN, it OPEN’s the file just as you say.

HOWEVER – if you right click and select PREVIEW, you haven’t changed the application it uses. I want to know how to change this for two reasons:
1. I’d like to preview multiple files in a directory. If I start with a JPG file, the photoviewer is handy to look at all the files in that directory – right now, if I right click on a BMP file, it will open Photoshop and that takes a minute or two to get out of.
2. The icon apparently is not the same as the default application that OPENs it. Apparently it’s the application that PREVIEWs it, or it’s separate altogether.

By: Lindsay Buchan

Lindsay Buchan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:10:33 +0000

Sadly this didn’t work for me, I’ve done everything you said, if I right click on a picture and select properties it says “opens with microsoft photo editor” but if I double click on the picture it still opens in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. This has just started happenign in the last week or two and nothing i do will make it go back to the way it was!

By: Hunter McMillian

Hunter McMillian — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:51:03 +0000

This was VERY helpful thanks! I was tired of having to “select a program from the list” from default so I appreciate this very much.