Every Windows 10 user knows that in this OS, Microsoft ditched the Windows Photo Viewer app and replaced it a less functional Universal app called Photos. In this article, I would like to draw your attention to three impressive alternative applications which can replace Windows Photo Viewer so you get back functionality, usability and speed.
Best Free Digital Image Viewer. Last updated by marcdarkin on 22. August 2018 - 01:02 Read this article in Spanish. December 2017 - 14:53. May 2, 2016 - Can you recommend me some of the best image viewers for Windows. Faststone is a free image viewer that you can use as a replacement for.
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While it is possible to restore Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10, there are several reasons to look for a replacement.
- Windows Photo Viewer can be removed by Microsoft any day with a new update to Windows 10.
- Also, in Windows 10, Windows Photo Viewer requires Direct3D acceleration, which can cause performance issues on older hardware and make it unusable in a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox.
- Windows Photo Viewer offers very basic functionality, isn't ultra-fast and lacks a lot of features and supported formats.
- Windows Photo Viewer fails to open an image from a ZIP archive when you double click it in Explorer.
So, let's see which freeware and high quality alternatives we can use in Windows 10 instead of Windows Photo Viewer.
IrfanView
IrfanView is a very old software which I got familiar with in the Windows 98 era. Over the years, the author has continued his hard work for free and improved the app. It runs well on every modern Windows version. The best feature of IrfanView is its wide range of options and preferences which makes it very configurable.
IrfanView supports a huge number of image file formats and can be extended with plugins. It provides a number of image editing tools like crop, red eye removal tool, resizing, basic filters. The toolbar buttons support skins. IrfanView also provides a multi language user interface.
Besides image formats, it can also play various video and audio formats.
IrfanView features a slideshow feature, which can be saved as a screensaver.
It also comes with a directory browser mode called 'Thumbnails':IrfanView opens fast and is very lightweight on system resources. It can be used to convert images from one format to another, and can also do batch conversions. You can use IrfanView to capture screenshots.
There are some caveats though with IrfanView. After installing the current version of IrfanView, which is 4.40, I noticed that it is bundled with unwanted software. By default, it offers a plugin for your browser and tries to change the default search provider and the browser's home page to Amazon. The user can skip this offer but it is not acceptable to bundle other software to keep the app free. Also, after installing, it annoyingly opens the user's default browser to show a FAQ page on its own website. This makes for a bad user experience. If you can excuse these issues, IrfanView is a great piece of software and one of the best Windows Photo Viewer replacements.
XnView
XnView is almost the same application as IrfanView. XnView is my software of choice. I switched to XnView back in 2001. XnView has a faster image browser and its image rendering quality is much better than what IranView offers. XnView can be used as a portable application since one of its download options is just a ZIP archive without an installer.
XnView also supports plugins, multi language translations and a wide range of image and media file formats. It offers a slideshow feature, a screenshot capture option and many other options which can be useful for everyone.
I consider XnView as the best Photo Viewer replacement. I use it on every operating system I have installed, in Linux too, with a special Qt version, which is also free.
XnView is not bundled with any third party unwanted software.
Imagine
Imagine is the third app which is worth mentioning. It has the power and features of the apps reviewed above but the surprising thing is Imagine is just about 1MB in size! It is the fastest app amongst the ones reviewed. It also has plugins, screenshot capture and converter tools and many other options you definitely will find useful.
It is not bundled with other adware or malware. Imagine also has a portable version. All these features make it one of the best image viewers available for Windows. It is also free. Imagine can be your ultimate choice if you have low end hardware since it is very lightweight.
Summary
All of the three mentioned apps are impressive pieces of software. Their authors have done a remarkable job to keep them lightweight yet useful, powerful and free for personal use. Give them a try and decide for yourself which app is the most suitable for you.
All of the three mentioned apps are impressive pieces of software. Their authors have done a remarkable job to keep them lightweight yet useful, powerful and free for personal use. Give them a try and decide for yourself which app is the most suitable for you.
In the Windows world, there are hundreds of other image viewers which are good, fast and useful. Tell us in the comments what you are using to view your images and why.
![Best free image viewer 2017 Best free image viewer 2017](/uploads/1/2/5/2/125294296/186834844.jpg)
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