If you are also using Windows 10 and missing “Windows Photo Viewer” program and want to set it as default program to open image files in Windows 10, this tutorial will definitely help you. I opened Windows 8.1 OS in another machine and found the required keys in Registry Editor which were missing in Windows 10 OS and by adding those missing Registry keys to Windows 10, I was able to re-associate “Windows Photo Viewer” program with image files without any problem. Actually Microsoft has removed many required keys from Registry which were responsible to show “Windows Photo Viewer” in “Open with”, “Default Apps” and “Set Default Programs” screens. When I looked into my favorite Registry Editor program, I was able to find why “Windows Photo Viewer” program was not listed anywhere in Windows 10.

It seems Microsoft has decided to completely ditch the good ol’ “Windows Photo Viewer” program from Windows 10. Again “Windows Photo Viewer” was not present anywhere in the program list. JPG file and selecting “ Open with” option.

Again Microsoft has decided to remove all popular image filetypes from “Windows Photo Viewer” association screen so that no one can re-associate “Windows Photo Viewer” as default program to open those images in Windows 10.Īt last I decided to manually change the default program to open images by right-clicking on a. But for my surprise only 2 filetypes were listed to associate with “Windows Photo Viewer” program: TIF and TIFF. Microsoft has decided to not show the good ol’ tool in default app selection list.Īfter that I went to the classic “ Set Default Programs” window in Control Panel hoping that I would be able to set “Windows Photo Viewer” as default image viewer from that tool. Only Photos app and Paint program were listed there. When I checked in the new Settings app -> System -> Default Apps section, I couldn’t find “Windows Photo Viewer” in the list given under “ Photo viewer” selection. So I decided to set “Windows Photo Viewer” as default image viewer in Windows 10. I never prefer modern or metro apps over traditional Desktop programs. Photos app takes a little bit time in opening images or photo files which becomes quite annoying with time. Instead Windows 10 comes with a new modern (or metro) app called “ Photos” (sometimes with Paint 3D) which is now the default image viewer program in Windows 10.Īlthough new Photos app is a good looking program and provides good features and user interface but its not as fast as the good ol’ “Windows Photo Viewer” program was. If you are using Windows 10 operating system in your computer, you might have noticed that it doesn’t come with “ Windows Photo Viewer” program as default to open image files.

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