[Tip] Restore Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11

If you want to restore and enable classic Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11, this article will help you.

Following screenshot shows the Windows Photo Viewer program restored and working successfully in Windows 11 operating system:

In Windows 11, if you try to open an image file, by default it opens in the built-in Photos app which is basically an UWP (Store) app which comes bundled with Windows 11. The new Photos app is the default image viewer program in Windows 11 which is used to view or open all kind of images such as PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, etc.

The New Photos App is Slower in Windows 11

Although the new Photos app is an advanced image viewer app and provides lots of useful features but it’s a little bit slow. When you open an image file by double-clicking on it, you can clearly notice the amount of time taken by Photos app to launch and show the image file on your computer screen. Photos app also uses animations and visual effects while navigating between images which can cause performance issues on slower devices.

Following screenshot shows the new Photos app in Windows 11:

Navigation Bug in Windows 11 Photos App

I have also encountered bugs while browsing through image files using Photos app. Sometimes it doesn’t show all images while navigating using arrow keys or previous/next arrows shown by the app. It automatically skips some image files while navigating.

There is another irritating bug present in Photos app! If you open the last image file present in a folder in Photos app, you can’t go to the previous image file using arrow keys or previous/next buttons. It only allows to go forward and displays the first image file present in the folder. I found a workaround to this issue. If you open the second last image file, then you’ll be able to go to previous image in the same folder.

So you see the built-in Photos app is slower and contains some issues in Windows 11.

The Good Ol’ Windows Photo Viewer App

On the other hand, the classic Windows Photo Viewer program which used to come bundled with Windows 7 operating system, was an excellent image viewing tool. It was faster and didn’t use any animations or eye candy effects while browsing images.

The good news is that you can restore the classic Windows Photo Viewer app in Windows 11 and can use it to view images. Yes, Windows Photo Viewer is still present in the latest Windows 11 operating system but comes hidden. It’s run by a DLL file “PhotoViewer.dll” present in “C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer” folder. But Microsoft has made it hidden from users.

There are ways to bring back the program in Windows 11 and set Windows Photo Viewer as default image viewing app in Windows 11.

We’ll use the same methods and tricks to restore Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11 which we used long time back to enable the same program in Windows 10 in following article:

[Tip] Enable Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10

The same methods still work in Windows 11 and we can use these methods to restore Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11.

Restoring Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11

Restoring Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11 is a very easy task. We have created an automatic Registry script (same as Windows 10) which will add required keys to Registry to bring back Windows Photo Viewer program to Windows 11 operating system.

You just need to download and run the Registry script and it’ll do the whole task automatically.

STEP 1:

Download following ZIP file, extract it using 7-Zip or other file archive utilities and run the extracted Reg file:

The script file will ask for confirmation, accept it.

The Registry script will add Windows Photo Viewer app as registered program to view and open image files. Now we’ll need to set it as default image viewer manually.

STEP 2:

Open any image file by double-clicking on it and Windows 11 will show “Open With” fly-out or pop-up asking to choose a program to open image files.

Now you’ll see Windows Photo Viewer present in the programs list which was not available before.

Select Windows Photo Viewer and also enable “Always use this app to open .png/.bmp/.jpeg files” checkbox.

Click on OK button and you’ll get the classic Windows Photo Viewer back in Windows 11.

Windows 11 will show the “Open With” dialog box for all different types of image files such as .PNG, .JPG, .BMP, .GIF, etc. It’s a one time process. Once you set Windows Photo Viewer as default program to open a particular image type such as .JPG, Windows 11 will remember your choice and will always use Windows Photo Viewer to open .JPG files in your system. Make sure to check “Always use this app to open .png/.bmp/.jpeg files” checkbox in Open With window.

You’ll now also get Windows Photo Viewer listed under Open With programs list when you right-click on an image file in File Explorer.

You can also check out some other methods to direct open Windows Photo Viewer app and create its shortcut in following exclusive article:

[Tip] Enable Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10

Also Check:

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

Registry Tweak to Change “Photo Viewer” or “Photo Gallery” Background Color in Windows