How To Change Windows 10 Photos Background Color?

ChristieLuv · 11 Sep 2017

When you double click on any image in Windows 10, Windows Photos displays the image, but it's around a black background, which doesn't go with the theme of my computer at all, and I work with images a lot. It's not appealing at all to me, and I wish people could choose a color that matches their personal tastes, since people view images a lot. Maybe Windows can make it the user's custom Windows color eventually? Is there a way to change it?

philc43 · 11 Sep 2017

Hello ChristieLuv :)

I don't believe you can customise it to any colour but you can use a light background if you prefer this to the dark one. Click on the three dots at the top right of the app and select Light mode in the settings:

How To Change Windows 10 Photos Background Color?-2017-09-11.png

ChristieLuv · 20 Sep 2017

Thank you so much for your response! Yes that's a good alternative, however I set it to Light Mode in Settings, and images still have the same dark background. Hmm, does this happen with other computers, or is it just me?

Sorry for the late reply! I got pretty busy! >.<

philc43 · 20 Sep 2017

Not it is not you :)

I just checked and I get the same thing. Not sure if it was always like this or if it is a recent change, Microsoft have decided a black background is best for showing off your images.

My solution, which is not great, is to not use full screen and adjust the window size to the image size so that none of the black background shows. Then you see the desktop background instead.

Barman58 · 20 Sep 2017

A more drastic solution, but ultimately an improvement is to use an application with a little more customisation options

The free Irfanview image viewer is one that I still use I have all the normal Image formats, Including specialist Photographic Raw Files, set to Open with Irfanview, even though I use professional Image software on a day to day basis (Lightroom & Photoshop).

IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

It is useful to double click an image file's thumbnail and have it quickly open rather that wait for many thousands of files to load into a lightroom catalog, or Photoshop to load

There are two versions 32 & 64 Bit I would suggest you choose the one to match your operating system although it's possible to use the 32 bit on a 64bit OS.( the 32 Bit version has some basic editing tools which are not in the 64Bit, It is possible to have the two versions on the same system, set the 64 Bit as or 32 bit for various filetypes )

There is a full set of plugins that allow you to view virtually any image file format ever produced, plus a few non image types

You can also use the program to crop and manipulate images and in many cases save as a different format so it works as a convertor too

The application is slightly dated in it's user interface but this is very customisable and the Settings allow you to choose from the full colour palette for the background colour [Edit] I have just found that there are now also Modern Apps available for free in the Windows store that are based on the original so if a windows 10 look is important this may be an option

It also includes a free thumbnail viewer that allows you to scroll though a large set of images with virtually all showing visual details and not the icon that Explorer uses for many file types that It cannot open

ChristieLuv · 20 Sep 2017

Wonderful! Yes I love the IrfanView Image Viewer! I'll just go with that! I use Photoshop & Lightroom a lot as well! Thanks to the both of you! ^-^

Callender · 20 Sep 2017

Personally I removed the Photos app and switched to Windows Photo Viewer.

How to Restore Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10

You could also change background color.

How to Change Windows Photo Viewer Background Color in Windows

Also I prefer third party photo viewers like Ifanview and others.