How do I get Windows Picture and Fax Viewer in Windows Vista?

can this work with windows 7?

No, not that I'm aware of.

31-Jan-2012

@Just Me
My Windows 7 machine has both "Windows Live Photo Gallery" and "Windows Photo Viewer" each with slightly different options. You can certainly use Faststone and Irfanview on Windows 7.

actually, yes this does work on W7. I gathered the required files from internet sources, created the .reg file with the changes suggested, Simply copy the files to your Windows folder, clik the reg, merge. all set. A windows picture and fax view on W7. works perfectly.
They should never have taken it out.
And I never really like any of the replacement programs available.

i had downloaded and tried both Irfanview and FastStone . Yes, it does work, but; I can't upload any pictures from my computer to any web sites. Any recommendations?

The viewers are unrelated to uploading photos. Exactly what's going on depends on exactly what website you're trying to upload to, the steps you follow to attempt to upload, and then the exact error message you get when you try.

09-Apr-2012

You can use XP Picture & Fax in Windows 7, but you need 2 files.

1) Copy XP shimgvw.dll to C:\Windows
(As long as it is the XP version, it WILL work!)

2) Import the registry key below. (Copy everything below _(Start)_ & above _(End)_ to a new notepad document, then save it as XP7.reg

Before you grab this & import it, please note that this will ONLY work in Windows 7. If you want it to work in Vista, you will have to change both occurrences of VISTARTM to WINXPSP2 & save the changes.

This registry key will cause XP Image viewer to run in your Windows 7 machine as the default image viewer for: BMP/JPG/GIF/PNG/TIF & has the correct default icons selected as well.

3 reasons to use this over Windows 7 image viewer are:

1) Animated GIF files actually play.
2) Pictures smoothly enlarge, not grainy like 7.
3) You can edit TIF files.

MAKE SURE YOU OBEY STEP 1 & import the XP version of shimgvw.dll file into C:\Windows on your Windows 7 machine before importing the registry key, or this will NOT work. The registry key will be looking at this location for this file.

__________(START)__________

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\rundll32.exe"="VISTARTM"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\rundll32.exe"="VISTARTM"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.BMP]
@="BMPImage.Document"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BMPImage.Document\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-70"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\BMPImage.Document\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\rundll32.exe C:\\Windows\\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.GIF]
@="GIFImage.Document"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\GIFImage.Document\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-71"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\GIFImage.Document\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\rundll32.exe C:\\Windows\\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.JPG]
@="JPGImage.Document"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\JPGImage.Document\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-72"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\JPGImage.Document\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\rundll32.exe C:\\Windows\\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.PNG]
@="PNGImage.Document"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PNGImage.Document\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-83"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PNGImage.Document\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\rundll32.exe C:\\Windows\\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.TIF]
@="TIFImage.Document"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TIFImage.Document\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-70"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TIFImage.Document\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\rundll32.exe C:\\Windows\\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1"

__________(END)__________

Edit: I know I posted earlier, but I experimented & this key is 75% smaller than the original, & works better. This is the MINIMUM needed to run XP image viewer as default for the 5 file types listed above, as well as the correct default icons & using shimgvw.dll to open the picture types.

I also noted that both App Compat locations are needed, because one is for the current user, while the other is for All Users (sets XP image viewer as default for all users.)

You can use another compatibility mode, but the ones listed work best, because they eliminate the Windows prompt each time you want to run the XP image viewer.

You don't have to import the rundll32.exe file like before, because I found that using the built in rundll32.exe file works fine. I experimented & found that although you could not right-click the Windows 7 rundll32.exe file & edit the properties to make it compatible, you could just reference it with a registry key with pre-applied compatibility modes, & it will work great!

Will someone please follow the instructions above, then post back up here that this DOES work? I admire LEO, but he is wrong on this. I have used this trick on about a hundred times to verify that it always works, & it DOES work on every machine I tried, so long as the instructions are properly followed.

It really is not half so hard as it seems, but I just included lots of helpful hints in case you wanted to try or do other things.

Please, try this out, & post back your experience, so LEO can finally stop saying it is IMPOSSIBLE to import XP Image Viewer into Windows 7.

I used to believe that was true, but I have experimented a lot, & found that this is an outright lie. It does & WILL work if you follow the instructions above.

NOTHING is impossible with the right knowledge, & I worked very hard to ensure that this does work & is accurate. I also worked hard to make sure it used the minimal effort required to make it work.

Please DO post your experience here, because we need more people to understand. THIS ISN'T IMPOSSIBLE!

Thank you!