What is the file name and extension for Windows picture and fax and How do I change my default image viewer back to the Windows Turns out it’s easier to get rid of than it is to restore. But
not It took a little spelunking using Process Explorer to determine the command line that is used when The command to run Windows Picture and Fax viewer is: So, to answer the first question: shimgvw.dll probably exposes the objects As for the second, restoring Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as the viewer If for some reason it’s not already in the list, you can force the
viewer? I want to use it for an OLE object to view pictures.
Picture and Fax Viewer?
impossible.
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is invoked. Turns out that it’s not a
stand-alone exe at all.rundll32.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen
path-to-picture
needed to use
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as an OLE object.
for images:
“.jpg”, “.gif”, and so on at the end of the filename. It indicates the type of
picture, and more importantly, it’s what Windows uses to decide what program to
use to display it.
….
displayed.
already be listed. Click on it.
open this kind of file”.
association by following these steps, still in Windows Explorer:
- On the Tools menu, click Folder
Options… - Click on the File Types tab.
- Scroll down to the extension you care about, for example “JPG”.
- Press the Restore button, if it exists.
- Press the Advanced button.
- Click on the Open action.
- Click on Edit…
- In the Application used to perform action: enter
C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe
. Where
C:\WINDOWS\System32\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen %1
“C:\WINDOWS” is the directory containing your Windows installation. - Press OK
You’ll want to repeat that for every extension [GIF, JPG, JPEG, etc.] for
which you want to
change the behavior.
Update: Another approach to re-installing
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
is to click on Start, Run… and type in:
regsvr32 /i shimgvw.dll
and press OK. Then press OK again on the resulting success message.
[Thanks to comment poster Leon for this suggestion.]
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is the native image viewer application included with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. For Windows 7 it has been replaced by Windows Photo Viewer, which offers the same functions. The viewer allows you to open, rotate, print, email or burn images to DVDs directly from the folder containing the files. Installing a third-party image editing program can, however, cause the file associations to change, which results in images opening in the new program when double-clicked. To reset the Windows Picture and Fax viewer as the default application for opening image files, the file association has to be changed back.
Windows XP
Step 1
Right-click the picture that you want to open with Windows Picture and Fax viewer by default.
Step 2
Click "Open with" and select "Choose default program" from the list of options.
Step 3
Click "Windows Picture & Fax Viewer" from the list of recommended programs.
Step 4
Click the check box next to "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file." Click the "OK" button to save the changes.
Step 5
Repeat the process for every image file type that you want to open with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer by default.
Windows 7
Step 1
Click the Windows "Start" button and click "Default Programs."
Step 2
Click "Set your default programs."
Step 3
Click "Windows Photo Viewer"
Step 4
Click "Choose defaults for this program."
Step 5
Click the check box next to the image file types listed on the page. Click the "Save" button once you are done.
References
Resources
Writer Bio
Virtually growing up in a computer repair shop, Naomi Bolton has held a passion for as long as she can remember. After earning a diploma through a four year course in graphic design from Cibap College, Bolton launched her own photography business. Her work has been featured on Blinklist, Gameramble and many others.