How To Enable Windows Photo Viewer In Windows 11 and Set as Default Picture Viewer

Do you want to bring back the old Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11? Yes, the photo viewer is no longer available in Windows 11. Microsoft added a new app called Photos which is an enhanced version of the Photo Viewer that includes more features like image cropping, enhancements, and much more.

There is nothing wrong with the new Photos app in Windows 11 unless you are having some issues with it or just want to use the old Photo Viewer.

Luckily the Windows Photo Viewer app still exists in Windows 11 and Microsoft just disabled it to encourage to use of the new Photos app in the current windows. In this guide, you will learn how to enable Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11 and make it the default picture viewer.

How to Enable Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11

To enable Windows Photo Viewer we need to make a few modifications in the registry. But, some users don’t feel comfortable editing the core files of Windows. So, to make it easy for you, copy the code in a text file and save it as a .reg file and then run it.

1. Open Notepad, press the Windows+R keyboard shortcut and type notepad in the Run window and hit Enter. This will open Notepad.
2. Copy the highlighted code given below and paste it into Notepad.
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll][HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell][HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open]
"MuiVerb"="@photoviewer.dll,-3043"[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
00,31,00,00,00

   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\print]

   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\print\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
00,31,00,00,00

   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\print\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{60fd46de-f830-4894-a628-6fa81bc0190d}"

3. From the Notepad click the File menu and select Save As.
4. In the Save As window give it a name  photoview.reg and choose a location where you want to save it like Desktop and hit the Save button. Now, you just created a Registry file that will help you to enable the Windows Photo Viewer.
5. Go to the location where you just saved the file and double-click the file to run it.
6. You might see a message like this, just click the Run button.
   
7. Next, if you see the User Account Control message, hit the Yes button to allow it.
   
8. Registry Editor will prompt you to ask if you want to add this information in the Windows Registry file. Just click Yes to add Windows Photo Viewer info.
   
9. Once added, you will see a success message, click OK to close it.
   
10. Now, you have successfully enabled the old Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11. But whenever you open any photo the default app is still the Photos app. To open pictures with the Windows Photo Viewer you need right click on the picture that you want to open and select the Open With option and choose the Windows Photo Viewer from the app list. You can modify the default app for the pictures.

Set Windows Photo Viewer as the default app in Windows 11

1. Right-click on the Start button and select the Settings option.
   
2. On the left side select Apps, and on the right side click the Default apps option as you can see below in the screenshot.
   
3. First, type the file extension (.png or .jpg) that you want to associate with the Windows Photo Viewer. Once you type the extensiton it will show you the current default app for this file types. Click the current default app name, in this case, it’s the Photos app.
   
4. Scroll down to find the Windows Photo Viewer app. If you don’t see it in the list click the More Apps option to view the complete list of available apps and then select Windows Photo Viewer.
   

Now, you successfully set the default app for .png the file type. Following the same steps, you can set the default app for .jpg. Whenever you double click to open the .png or .jpg it will open up in the default app.

Change the default app for pictures from the Open With menu.

1. Right-click on the picture for which you want to change to the default app. Select the Open with option and then click Choose another app option.
   
2. This will show you the “How do you want to open this file” window. Scroll down to the end and click More Apps the option. Select Windows Photo Viewer and also check the option Always use this app to open <.jpg> files and click OK button to save the settings.
   
3. Now, you have successfully set the default app Windows Photo Viewer for .jpg files.

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