It appears that 2022's Windows 10 update squashed its built-in Windows Photos - image viewer app.
A worthy alternative is thus needed: JPEGView.
Problems with Windows Photos
Unable to view WEBP images.
There is a way to 're-enable' the old image viewer like so: rundll32 c:\windows\system32\shimgvw.dll,ImageView_Fullscreen c:\test.gif Plus a registry hack to make it the default for WEBPs. However, there's a colour space mapping problem which causes the image to darken in colours upon loading.
Now minimizes image to original, small size. And in a very irritating manner: small images are initially stretched (to fill the window while maintaining its aspect ratio) for easy viewing at first, but shrinks to its original, smaller size, in a needless, distracting animation. Thus, if you 'arrow' continuously to view an image sequence, the images keep resizing big to small repeatedly, convulsively - i.e. super irritating >=/
If you zoom the image, you cannot use arrow keys to navigate to the next/previous image. You'll have to restore the image to its original size 1st. This is truly dumb.
JPEGView Portable
Where to get: https://github.com/sdneon/jpegview - this is more bleeding edge, with pivot to slideshow & functional aspects, and providing usable executables. It will also occasionally stay up to date incorporating useful features from the original, like HEIC & JPEGXL image support.
Latest available: portable zip & installer.
Original from: https://github.com/sylikc/jpegview - this is currently off on a detour (after adding HEIC & JPEGXL iamge support) to tidy up and refactor its code-base.
Configuration
It needs a little configuration change to make it friendly =)
Open an image using JPEGView.
Right-click, select 'Settings/Admin'> 'Edit user settings'.
Notepad opens with JPEGView's INI configurations file. Change/set these:
ShowFullScreen=true If disabled, initial app window size is automatically set to the size of the 1st image opened, which could thus be small and undesirable. Enable full screen mode for maximum viewing area.
AutoZoomMode=Fit 'Fit' lets images be stretch to fill the window =)
FileDisplayOrder=FileName Follow filename numbering sequence (instead of file modified date) for easier viewing of sequential images =)
Advantages
Basically everything that Windows Photos fails at.
Able to view WEBP.
Able to view AVIF (including animated ones) now! @ github here.
Loads fast.
'Fit' mode ensures all images are stretched to fill the window for best, maximal viewing pleasure.
Its control buttons are in outline style at the bottom overlaying the image. They disappear if unused after a while, so as not to obscure the image being viewed.
You can 'arrow' to another and another image, without the distracting and unwanted Windows Photos zooming animation. Images load/display fast too =)
Quirks
It's a singleton - if u open another image from explorer, it will show in the existing JPEGView that's open.
Original does NOT support animated AVIF image format. Windows Photos does, with the help of a support pack from Windows Store.
Thanks
Thanks for making sure an awesome, simple app.
JPEGView official website: https://github.com/sylikc/jpegview
JPEGView modded with animated AVIF support and more: https://github.com/sdneon/jpegview/releases/tag/v1.1.42.2
PS: Googling for 'best/alternate photo viewer' (tends to) throws up links to articles recommending photo editors or managers instead. However, that's not what we want! Hence this article, to put forth a tested, worthy alternative - and a simple photo viewer.