Let’s face it, Windows Photo Viewer used to be and always has been the simplest yet most effective way to view our photos and rotate them.

In the later years Microsoft started to change how Windows looks like and made major changes to the interface.

The app “Photos” became the default Photo Viewer in Windows 10 and is no longer possible to get the old Windows Photo Viewer back without “googling“…

To make Windows Photo Viewer work again we have to first re-enable it by a Registry trick then make it default in Default apps.

We will also see what we can do to make the change to all accounts of the same computer.

Restore Windows Photo Viewer

Restore Windows Photo Viewer for Your Account

To only retrieve the classic Windows Photo Viewer for your current account we need a simple Registry File.

Download this file: Restore-Windows-Photo-Viewer.zip

Then double-click on it to add the parameters to your Registry.

You will be asked if you are sure you want to continue, click “Yes“. You can create a backup of your Registry by doing Win+R, run the command REGEDIT and then go to “File” > “Export“, choose a folder to save your backup.reg file and there you have a backup in case anything goes wrong.

You can delete the file once the changes to the Registry have been made.

Now you can open your images using Windows Photo Viewer.

Check “Always use this app to open .xxx files” to make it default. Then click OK.

There you have it!

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment down below.