[Fix] Windows Photo Viewer Takes Too Much Time in Opening Images

Windows Photo Viewer is a built-in image viewer program in Windows operating system. It comes preinstalled in Windows 7, Windows 8 and later Windows versions. Windows Photo Viewer was also present in good ol’ Windows XP with a different name “Windows Picture and Fax Viewer”.

Windows_Photo_Viewer_Default_White_Background.png

Since a few days I was facing a very annoying problem in Windows 8.1. Windows Photo Viewer was extremely slow and was taking too much time in loading images. Whenever I tried to open a picture file using Windows Photo Viewer program, it was taking long time in opening that picture. The computer is very fast and all Windows updates are installed. Everything runs fine except Windows Photo Viewer.

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I searched and found various solutions to fix this strange and irritating problem. Today in this topic, I’m going to share all possible solutions to troubleshoot this slow Windows Photo Viewer problem.

If you are also facing this problem, try following solutions:

SOLUTION 1: Deleting Display Profile in Color Management

In Windows XP, the default “Windows Picture and Fax Viewer” program was using GDI+ (Graphics Device Interface) to show graphics on screen but Microsoft changed this behavior in Windows 7. Now “Windows Photo Viewer” program utilizes Windows Imaging Component (WIC) to take all advantages of the advanced Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) architecture.

Sometimes this change might cause this annoying problem. To fix this problem, you’ll need to remove the monitor calibration profile from color management program.

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type colorcpl.exe in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It’ll open Color Management window.

2. Now go to Advanced tab and click on “Change system defaults…” button.

Changing_Color_Management_Default_Settings.png

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3. Now select the default profile and click on Remove button.

If you see other profiles having calibrated term in their names, delete them as well.

4. Close all programs and restart Windows.

It should solve the slow Windows Photo Viewer problem.

SOLUTION 2: Another Way to Delete Calibrated Display Profile

If the first solution doesn’t work for you, try following:

1. Open Windows Explorer and go to following folder:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\spool\drivers\color

Alternatively, you can direct open it using %windir%\system32\spool\drivers\color command in RUN dialog box.

2. Now you’ll see various files in color folder such as .icc, .camp, .gmmp, .icm, .cdmp, etc. If you find any file with a name similar to CalibratedDisplayProfile-x.icc, delete it.

Deleting_Calibrated_Display_Profile_ICC_File.png

3. Restart Windows and it should solve the problem.

SOLUTION 3: Set Windows Photo Viewer as Default Program

Make sure Windows Photo Viewer is set as default program to view pictures:

1. Open Control Panel, click on Default Programs icon and then click on Set your default programs link.

Alternatively, you can direct open it using following command in RUN dialog box:

explorer.exe shell:::{17CD9488-1228-4B2F-88CE-4298E93E0966}\pageDefaultProgram

2. Now click on Windows Photo Viewer entry present in the list and then click on “Set this program as default” option.

Set_Windows_Photo_Viewer_Default_Program.png

3. Close the window and now Windows Photo Viewer should open image files faster.

SOLUTION 4: Using Registry Editor

If above mentioned solutions don’t work for you, then it might be a cache problem. I found a Registry tweak on Microsoft support to disable Windows Photo Viewer cache feature which can fix this slowness problem:

1. Type regedit in RUN or Start search box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Photo Viewer\Viewer

3. In right-side pane, create a new DWORD CacheSize and set its value to 0

Disable_Windows_Photo_Viewer_Cache.png

4. Now restart your system and it should speedup Windows Photo Viewer loading time.

I’m not sure which of the above mentioned solutions worked for me but now the slow Windows Photo Viewer problem has been fixed and its opening image files quickly without any delay…

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 7, Windows 8

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
    First solution worked for me. I was really close to system reinstallation, but now i dont need to. This issue was very annoying with i7, 8gb and SSD.

  2. First solution had worked for me! I didn’t need to restart my computer (only disable Windows Photo Viewer). Finalyl it works fast. Thank you!

  3. An odd thing that has helped me with these delays was to restart the Windows Management Instrumentation service. Will try the other suggestions if it gets wacky again.

  4. yes! First one worked, no reboot. I do not know if it will have any side effects

  5. Thank you, first solution worked, was so frustrated in having such long loading times! You’re awesome 🙂

  6. I had this irritating slowness with Windows Photo Viewer on my system since I recently updated to Windows 10. When browsing through pictures, also with small size (less than 500K) took about 2 seconds delay before display for many of them, compared to a fraction of a second before.
    I tried already many other recommendations, without success.
    Your solution 1, even before doing step 4 (restart Windows), immediately solved my problem. Thank you very much.

  7. If you don’t want to do anything try this… open any picture leave it open minimize it if you want, then open and close any of the pictures you want to view and there will be no lag as long as you leave the first picture open.

  8. guys dont bother deleting your calibrations just use picasa photo viewer instead of windows photo viewer its fast and its only about 5Mbytes!

  9. WOW. At last I solv… Damn! It gone fast (instant!) only on first run. After closing, wait a moment, and reopening, it goes slow again!
    I wonder What is doing this on loading!

  10. Thank you so much!
    First solution was great and my problem got solved 🙂
    Thinking the same that it was because of the calibration setup

  11. “To fix this problem, you’ll need to remove the monitor calibration profile from color management program.”

    What impact does removing the calibration profile have on the image and if any, printing of the image?

  12. Solution 1 ! BEST fix for many issues, including Firefox not responding!
    BIG THANKS!

  13. Thank you! Solution 1 works for me, it was soooooooo annoying I was using Photoshop to open images, because windows viewer would freeze my laptop.
    THANKS!!!

  14. I had the same problem, and I tried solution 1 but in step 3 I didn’t find a default profile, so I added one, and its work well even without restart.
    Thank you.

  15. Would you by any chance know how to bring back support for gif animation for windows photo viewer? Maybe you’d know a trick like a registry key taken from XP (which supported gif animation) and copied to Win7… I just thought i would ask. 🙂 thank you. And sorry for this off topic post.

  16. I tried re installing my Nvidia graphics card drivers cleared up the problem of the windows viewer lagging and the settings not starting properly!!!

  17. Also try turning off Shadowplay, if you have an nVidia gfx card. It somehow intervenes with Windows Photo Viewer’s load times drastically.

  18. I used solution 3 and it didn’t work.
    Then I used solution 3 but with paint instead.
    Now pictures open instantly instead of after 2 seconds.

  19. @Silhouette Thank you! Turning off nividia’s shadowplay solved the problem for me as well.

  20. Totally working solution.
    Already fixed problem with other program witch was taking a lot to open, same sympthom.

  21. As on XP solutions above did not work, yet this worked:

    Solution:
    broken shortcut on the desktop
    Find the shortcuts that dont work and delete them

  22. Thank you so much!! I have had this problems for months! I’m not exactly sure when it started, but my computer is blazing fast, but opening images was like a snail slugging through quicksand! Bravo!!! Solution #3 worked, however, my option was not “Window Photo Viewer” but rather, “Photos (recommended for Windows 10)”
    Again, thank you so much! I should have looked for a solution months ago!

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