While Microsoft Photos provides slightly better rendering for most images, it doesn’t support all file formats. Moreover, there’s no way to install codecs for unsupported file formats on Microsoft Photos to support those files. However, it is possible to install such codecs on your system, which Windows Photo Viewer can directly use to view the files. It’s also better to have a built-in alternative for Photos in case the app experiences some issues. So, we have created this article to help you restore Windows Photo Viewer on the later Windows builds.
How to Restore Windows Photo Viewer
If you upgraded your system from Windows 7 or 8/8.1, Windows Photo Viewer should still be enabled on your system. However, if you custom installed Windows 10 or 11, you need to change many registry entries to restore this feature. It’s better to create a registry script and merge it with your registry to avoid the hassle of manually searching and changing the entries. Here are the steps you need to perform this method: This script enables Windows Photo Viewer on all the users on your system. So, you don’t need to perform it again if you create a new account. Now, if you want to set this Photo Viewer as the default option for opening your image files, you can do so from your app settings. Follow the instructions below:
How to Disable Windows Photo Viewer
If you no longer want to use Windows Photo Viewer, you can disable it similarly by deleting those registry entries. We have also created a registry script for this purpose. You can use the same steps as above to create the .reg file and merge it. Then you can change the default app to Microsoft Photos or any other application you want.
