If you click on an image file and the first thing you see is a banner telling you that you have to sign up or upgrade (for a fee); or, it just takes too long to see your picture, then your picture viewing process probably has been hijacked. Certainly it could be improved upon.
Any number of photo processing software programs will automatically take over as your default viewer just because you use them once.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of many of the image processing software products. But, when I just want to take a look at an image, I prefer
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer because it's fast and easy.
Naturally, you can right-click on an image and get a list of options to "Open with..." Better still, I like to know that if I double-click an image,
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer will pop up instantly and display the picture that I want to peek at quickly.
If you feel the same way, here's how you restore
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as your default in Windows:
- Go to Control Panel
- Click Folder Options
- Click the File Types Tab
- Scroll down to JPG and single-click
- If it doesn't say Windows Picture and Fax Viewer in the panel below,
Click the Change button and select Windows Picture and Fax Viewer from the list. - Follow the same steps for JPE, JPEG, GIF, and TIF file types