Restore Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10  

Yussee said:

Hi,

I solved this problem without poking the registry.
Just create a batch file (.bat) with these rows:

@ECHO OFF
START rundll32 "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Photo Viewer\PhotoViewer.dll", ImageView_Fullscreen %~f1

Then associate your pictures and photos with that bat.

I'm not sure why this solution can not be found anywhere in the internet? Just had to figure it out myself...

Thanks so much!!!! I've been trying for hours to find a solution since I don't have Admin rights to edit registry or install something...You are AWESOME!!! !!

irath said:

Thanks so much!!!! I've been trying for hours to find a solution since I don't have Admin rights to edit registry or install something...You are AWESOME!!! !!

You are welcome irath!
Glad to help even I'm NOT a computer expert by any means.

Obviously I was really frustrated with the new W10 Photos app. Like so many others, I began to google up the solution and was very surprised when I found out that the good old (*) Photo Viewer was still there! So, I thought, I'll just associate everything with it, simple as that. Denied! What the heck! What is this? TIFFs are even associated with PV? But nothing else can not be associated with it. Ok, google more... Then came up a cmd-line rundll32 "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Photo Viewer\PhotoViewer.dll", ImageView_Fullscreen which runs PV, and with added path or file it opens a desired location with it. Brilliant, but inconvenient. Well, how to open any file? With .bat! More googling. And eventually I found the (almost) magical %~f1. Wow, it really worked, I couldn't believe my eyes!

As I mentioned, I'm not a code ninja and it turned out it might be better to use .cmd file extension end it likely works just as well without that @ECHO OFF line. Not sure what is the best practice here...

Of course the original registry solution for this problem is more elegant, I guess. But as pointed out, it is not always accessible. Also, my posts are not directly on topic, but I just wanted to share, because I couldn't find this kind of solution myself.
So, spread the gospel if you feel

(*) OK, Photo Viewer is not probably the best viewer tool, but it's simple and good enough for most things you do very often. AND, if you don't have admin rights (like I don't have here in work), it's basically all you got...

Thank you, thank you. I just accomplished your suggestion regarding Windows Photo Viewer, successfully. 10/30/2020.
Ron registered as Shiron

heyyahblah said:

Thank you for this tutorial Brink as always.

I am super angry at Microsoft right now. I'm starting to give up hope on 10

Yea my Photos stopped working recently so I reseted it and now it doesn't even boot that's why i'm using Photo Viewer as my old PC which was Windows 7

@Yussee Thanks bruh, had to make an account just to say it! Now onto browse thru the forum xD