How to Change a Photo Viewer

You can use many different software programs for digital photo viewing and editing. Most MS Windows installations include Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, but if you use MS Office, you probably have Microsoft Office Picture Manager installed as well. Many people also use Adobe Photoshop or a picture viewing or editing program installed with their printer drivers. You may want to change your default photo viewer, whether it is for all photo file types or just one at a time.

Instructions

1. Open the "Start" menu and click "My Computer." If you have a "My Computer" shortcut on your desktop, you can double click that instead.

2. Click "Tools" on the menu bar and then "Folder Options ... ." When the "Folder Options" window opens, click the "File Types" tab.

3. Scroll through the list to find the photo file type you wish to change the viewer for. You can sort by "Extension," such as JPG, GIF or TIF, or by "File Type," such as "JPEG Image" or "Adobe Photoshop Image." Click on the selection to highlight it.

4. Click the "Change..." button in the bottom half of the window. Select the program you want to use as the photo viewer for this file type. Click "OK."

5. Repeat this process for each file type you wish to change. When you are done, click "Close" at the bottom of the "Folder Options" window.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to use photo viewers, such as Microsoft Office Picture Manager, rather than photo editors, like Adobe Photoshop, unless you intend to do a lot of editing. Editors take much longer to load and require much more memory to run than viewers.

• Some file types are incompatible with some viewers. For example, MS Paint will not open JPG files, and only Adobe Photoshop can open PSD files. Make sure your viewer is compatible with the file type before making the change.