I prefer the 'Free for personal use', XnView from
www.xnview.com . But even if you chose another program to use as your default picture viewer. Windows will not give up it's own without a fight. If you double click on an image to view, the 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer' will automatically open. I Hate IT!!
To disable it: Click on 'Start', then 'Run' and type in:
regsvr32 -u %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll
The downside - you might have trouble changing the picture on your sign-in accout.
www.geocities.com/terryhollett2003/shimgvw.html
Posted by: Terry Hollett at January 7, 2008 10:34 AM
The feature I miss most with the loss of Windows Picture and Fax viewer is the loss of support for animated GIFs. I have other image editors/viewers, but none of these actually show the animated GIF's animations either, so I end up using the browser.
Other than animated GIF support, Windows Picture and Fax viewer didn't have much going for it.
Posted by: Brettski at January 11, 2008 10:39 AM
the feature i love best in the windows picture and fax veiwer was being able to print sizes other than fulL page[ WALLET SIZE ETC as we can not in the vista version wish wome on could find a way to us e it .. think i may UPGARDE back to xp for many reasons!!
Posted by: lori at January 25, 2008 11:46 AM
Hi buddies, i m sure there must be a good solution for it in vista...i think its possible to put WPandFv even in Vista...just let me experiment it for some days coz i m too missing it in Vista.
Posted by: Cybersupam at January 27, 2008 6:44 PM
I've used windows picture and fax viewer to print my faxes using a fax to email service where I get my faxes as e-mails. Now with Vista it uses windows photo gallery. Now my faxes are too wide and am forced to foreward them to my old xp computer. Can someone tell me how to fix this problem, and it's not a landscape and portrait problem.
Posted by: Brad White at February 4, 2008 10:18 AM
YOU CAN run both the traditional windows picture and fax viewer AND Office Picture Manager in Vista and you can run them simultaneously. Unfortunately, I have NO idea how to do this :). I bought a new PC with windows vista home premium installed and immediately began hunting for a new image viewer where I could easily crop and resize images (what I liked best about the old version - but resizing doesn't seem to be offered in office picture viewer).
Here's all I can tell you - I bought a new PC tower, unistalled all the trial software including office 2007. I then installed my 2003 office xp and after a reboot when I right click on an image and select "Open with" the older office and picture viewer is right there!
Posted by: Brian at March 10, 2008 8:49 AM
I've downloaded FastStone and I love it - a terrific substitute, so thanks Leo. But Vista is sulking in a subtle way - all the jpegs I have stored now appear with different icons, and when I double click to open one from My Documents (having set FastStone as my default jpeg viewer), I get a box with an error message saying the file is not a valid Win32 application. Any idea how to fix this?
By the way, opening the files from FastStone is fine, but I shouldn't have to settle for that, should I?
Posted by: Nigel at April 1, 2008 6:44 AM
Whoops, never mind. Just discovered I made an error when re-setting things in the Default Programs section of Control Panel. Apologies - all fine now.
Posted by: Nigel at April 1, 2008 6:55 AM
Your recommended alternatives don't provide the printing options. As one of the comments stated, Pix and Fax Viewer gives the user a multitude of printing options. What if I want to print all my pix in 3 by 5 format? It's not the photo editing I miss, it's the printing options.
Posted by: Gary at May 21, 2008 7:43 PM
I don't have any problem in printing everything the way it was under XP. The only difference is that you can't print several pictures directly from photo gallery. But if you select the pictures you want to print under explorer and the print by right clicking on them you have what you want. Once you get used to the way vista does it, you can do pretty much everything with it (also cropping, adjusting contrast and other things)
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I prefer the 'Free for personal use', XnView from
www.xnview.com . But even if you chose another program to use as your default picture viewer. Windows will not give up it's own without a fight. If you double click on an image to view, the 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer' will automatically open. I Hate IT!!
To disable it: Click on 'Start', then 'Run' and type in:
regsvr32 -u %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll
The downside - you might have trouble changing the picture on your sign-in accout.
www.geocities.com/terryhollett2003/shimgvw.html
Posted by: Terry Hollett at January 7, 2008 10:34 AMThe feature I miss most with the loss of Windows Picture and Fax viewer is the loss of support for animated GIFs. I have other image editors/viewers, but none of these actually show the animated GIF's animations either, so I end up using the browser.
Other than animated GIF support, Windows Picture and Fax viewer didn't have much going for it.
Posted by: Brettski at January 11, 2008 10:39 AMthe feature i love best in the windows picture and fax veiwer was being able to print sizes other than fulL page[ WALLET SIZE ETC as we can not in the vista version wish wome on could find a way to us e it .. think i may UPGARDE back to xp for many reasons!!
Posted by: lori at January 25, 2008 11:46 AMHi buddies, i m sure there must be a good solution for it in vista...i think its possible to put WPandFv even in Vista...just let me experiment it for some days coz i m too missing it in Vista.
Posted by: Cybersupam at January 27, 2008 6:44 PMI've used windows picture and fax viewer to print my faxes using a fax to email service where I get my faxes as e-mails. Now with Vista it uses windows photo gallery. Now my faxes are too wide and am forced to foreward them to my old xp computer. Can someone tell me how to fix this problem, and it's not a landscape and portrait problem.
Posted by: Brad White at February 4, 2008 10:18 AMYOU CAN run both the traditional windows picture and fax viewer AND Office Picture Manager in Vista and you can run them simultaneously. Unfortunately, I have NO idea how to do this :). I bought a new PC with windows vista home premium installed and immediately began hunting for a new image viewer where I could easily crop and resize images (what I liked best about the old version - but resizing doesn't seem to be offered in office picture viewer).
Posted by: Brian at March 10, 2008 8:49 AMHere's all I can tell you - I bought a new PC tower, unistalled all the trial software including office 2007. I then installed my 2003 office xp and after a reboot when I right click on an image and select "Open with" the older office and picture viewer is right there!
I've downloaded FastStone and I love it - a terrific substitute, so thanks Leo. But Vista is sulking in a subtle way - all the jpegs I have stored now appear with different icons, and when I double click to open one from My Documents (having set FastStone as my default jpeg viewer), I get a box with an error message saying the file is not a valid Win32 application. Any idea how to fix this?
Posted by: Nigel at April 1, 2008 6:44 AMBy the way, opening the files from FastStone is fine, but I shouldn't have to settle for that, should I?
Whoops, never mind. Just discovered I made an error when re-setting things in the Default Programs section of Control Panel. Apologies - all fine now.
Posted by: Nigel at April 1, 2008 6:55 AMYour recommended alternatives don't provide the printing options. As one of the comments stated, Pix and Fax Viewer gives the user a multitude of printing options. What if I want to print all my pix in 3 by 5 format? It's not the photo editing I miss, it's the printing options.
Posted by: Gary at May 21, 2008 7:43 PMI don't have any problem in printing everything the way it was under XP. The only difference is that you can't print several pictures directly from photo gallery. But if you select the pictures you want to print under explorer and the print by right clicking on them you have what you want. Once you get used to the way vista does it, you can do pretty much everything with it (also cropping, adjusting contrast and other things)
Posted by: Larry at May 29, 2008 7:55 AMTo post a comment on "How do I get Windows Picture and Fax Viewer in Windows Vista?", please return to that article's main page.