Summary: Windows Picture and Fax Viewer seems to have disappeared from Windows Vista. It's still there with a different name and look.
I have just installed Vista Home premium and miss Windows Picture & Fax Viewer for printing pictures. It seems that one has to first save them as an XPS file and then use MS XPS printer to actually print the pictures. A retrograde step it seems to me!
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Judging by the volume of requests on this topic, I think there are lots of people who agree with you that Vista took a step backwards when it comes to Windows Picture and Fax viewer.
But it's not as far a step backwards as you might think.
And even if it is, there are many alternatives.
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The default image viewer is Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.
From what I can tell, it's one of those love-it or hate-it applications. Personally, I'm in the later camp and never use it. But I know many people love it, are very happy with it, and use it regularly.
In Windows Vista, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer has been replaced by Windows Photo Gallery:
It's the same, only different. (And for the record, I'm not fond of it either.) It appears to have most of the same functionality as the older Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, but it's ... different.
If it's not already the default image viewer, you should be able to right click on any picture in Windows Explorer and say "Open With..." and choose Windows Photo Gallery to view your image.
And to address the issue that lead your question: you can print directly from within Windows Photo Gallery.
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I spoke of alternatives...
Copying Windows Picture and Fax Viewer from a Windows XP system is not an option. Windows Photo Gallery is implemented in the same file: shimgvw.dll, and the registration protocol has apparently changed between the two.
So you can't get Windows Picture and Fax Viewer on Windows Vista, just Windows Photo Gallery.
The alternatives I'm speaking of are third party tools that work on Both Windows Vista and Windows XP, and quite frankly, are far more powerful than either of the built-in Windows tools.
A reader recently recommended FastStone Image Viewer:
FastStone has quickly become my favored replacement for my long-loved, but now defunct Firehand Ember.
Another very popular image viewer is IrfanView:
Both Irfan and FastStone offer standard image viewing options, slide shows, thumbnail browsing, full screen view, and much more. In addition they both also include basic image editing tools such as cropping, resizing, and more.
And best of all, both are free.
So if you're frustrated with the transition from Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to Windows Photo Gallery, my recommendation is that you actually check out these alternatives. They are suitable replacements that work well on both Windows Vista and XP.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - How do I make something other than "Picture and FAX Viewer" the default for viewing pictures?
Article C3254 - January 2, 2008
Hello Leo
I've been looking for a program to just easily touch up my home photos for an age, I downloaded Fastone and it's worked like a charm for me. Thanks
Posted by: Seam at April 21, 2009 10:14 AMI don't like the photo gallery cause you can't preview gifs. It will show the first frame of the image and that is it.
Posted by: Sean at May 21, 2009 9:09 PMI have a new pc w/Vista...how can I open and print a fax sent with a .tif ext. It could have been opened and printed in readable form thru WPFV but not with WPG. Help!!
Posted by: Rhonda at June 18, 2009 1:37 PMMy main issue with Windows Photo Gallery is viewing images from a CD.
I am an a fine art painter, in a happier time, after photographing my subject I would burn a cd w/ about 200 images and then insert the disk, and view them using Window Picture and Fax Viewer, and voila, there they were, I could rotate them easily and the cd itself was quiet.
However, on my new computer, Photo Gallery, will not rotate images from a CD, and the CD spins endlessly making all sorts of noise. I'm aware I could import them to the hard drive and then they will rotate and not make noise, but I work with far too many images to practically do this.
Im actually considering taking my new computer to a local shop and having them remove Vista altogether, in order to reinstall the old XP just to have the old Pictures and Fax viewer again.
It has been very frustrating and a total inconvenience. If anyone knows of any programs that will read the images off of a cd and allow you to rotate let me know.
Thanks!
16-Jul-2009
Your advice got me just what I needed. I wonder why Microsoft didn't have Photo Gallery as one of the default options. Thanks, Ron Willing
Posted by: Ron at August 11, 2009 4:47 PMHi Leo , is there a way to configure win.photo gallery to open each image in the same window instead of several windows? Thanx
Posted by: eric at September 11, 2009 1:26 AMI am sorry for my previous post, I had not checked properly.
Posted by: Ana at September 14, 2009 12:58 AMI am now using irfan view and it works perfectly for what I want.
Thanks
The XP picture and fax viewer had OCR capabilities. This new program. Does vista have anything doing OCR to replace it?
Posted by: grifonik at September 25, 2009 7:14 PMWhat makes XP Picture viewer superb is that it is able to open large WMF (Windows Meta Files) images which Win Photo Gallery along with other image viewers recommended here are not. Also, XP Picture viewer is able to view very large images with great details without loss of quality. I have never found any other imageviewer that makes the job as XP Pic viewer.
Posted by: Reso at November 19, 2009 5:40 AMI am a Realtor and have just got a new PC at home that has Windows 7 Home Premium on it. I have just discovered that I can no longer open up .tif files that come into my e-fax and print them out full size because I no longer have Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. I have read all your responses, but what is the best free download for opening up and printing out .tif docs????? I'm not worried about the photo part.
Posted by: Susie at November 20, 2009 10:10 AM