Direct equivalent to Picasa Photo Viewer?

This has been asked many times around the net but I've yet to find a suitable answer.
I have thousands of photos and currently I use Picasa Photo Viewer when viewing photos in Win 10 Explorer.
It's (IMO) an excellent, non-intrusive & very fast way to view my pics.
You don't need to open any application other than Explorer, just set Windows to use Photo Viewer as a default.
It will also slideshow your photo folder and zoom in & out using just the mouse wheel.
Although Picasa has a photo organiser and editor I never use them, preferring Lightroom, Bridge & Photoshop.
But now I hear that Google is retiring it in favour of Google+ which is a totally different thing.


I just wasted another half hour trying to answer this question via Search, found the question posed many times &
been disappointed with the answers.
Does anyone know of anything which is a direct equivalent?

I find the standard Photos app is quite good. Else, you can restore Photo Viewer - see https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...dows-10-a.html

You could also use Photo Gallery which is part of Windows Essentials 2012 - see https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...ows-essentials

There are also many 3rd party free photo viewers e.g. Xnview

Comparison of image viewers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia presents a range of programs for similar functionality to Picasa

I believe Irfanview is quite popular: [Windows] Best free image viewer -- IrfanView vs XnView vs FastStone vs Picasa vs Zoner | Reviews, news, tips, and tricks | dotTechdotTech

Barman58 said:

One other option that not a lot are aware of is that Adobe Bridge is available legally for free, this is not an older version but the same as "shipped" with the latest version of the Creative Cloud Suite.

Its True: Adobe Bridge CC Is Completely Free for Everyone, for Life! | ProDesignTools



This is the same application that Pros use to manage their media, and also contains the Camera Raw application so will load , view and convert all the latest files from DSLR and other top end cameras

You'll need a magnifying glass to see the Bridge UI if you use a high dpi monitor.

You know, for years using Windows (Since Windows 3) I've always ignored Windows built in apps and gone off & found alternatives.
So as usual for me, when I installed Windows 10 I immediately went off and installed Picasa as a photo viewer.
But after the suggestion by Steve C that the built-in Photos app is quite good I tried it.
And he's right, it is pretty good and an excellent replacement for Picasa Photo Viewer. Thanks Steve.

Barman58 said:

One other option that not a lot are aware of is that Adobe Bridge is available legally for free...

As I mentioned in my post I already use Lightroom, Bridge & Photoshop & Bridge is far more of a photo organiser than a viewer - far to bloated for a simple viewer.

Fafhrd said:

...I believe Irfanview is quite popular: [Windows] Best free image viewer -- IrfanView vs XnView vs FastStone
vs Picasa vs Zoner | Reviews, news, tips, and tricks | dotTechdotTech

Thanks. All of these are applications that do much more than a viewer. Yes, so is Picasa but I only ever use the stand-alone Photo Viewer.


So Photos is the answer I was looking for. Now, all I need to find is a method of changing the slideshow speed (something that Picasa Photo Viewer lacked).


Thank you all for your help.

In fact Photos is better than Picasa Photo Viewer in that it directly plays videos as well, the 'Collection' option is also pretty good.
What a pleasant surprise.

The Photos app is good for basic viewing but it doesn't seem to have a zoom function. The slide show interval seems to be fixed but I just use the left/right arrows or mouse wheel to move through the photos. Note there is an enhance function you might want to turn off. I have an old version of ACDSee which I sometimes use for viewing when I want to zoom in.

True, no zoom button but it does have an 'actual size' button. I checked and found that slide show interval adjustment is not yet supported but there's many requests for it at MS feedback. Hopefully soon.
And yes I have turned off the 'enhance' feature