Windows Photo Viewer is a photo viewer program integrated into the Windows operating system. It comes pre-installed in Windows 7, Windows 8, and later versions of Windows. Windows Photo Viewer is also present in the “Windows XP ” list with a different name” Windows Picture and Fax Viewer “.
For a few days, I have been facing a very annoying problem in Windows 8.1. Windows Photo Viewer is very slow and takes too long to load images. Whenever I tried to open an image file using the Windows Photo Viewer program, it took time to open that image. The computer is speedy, and all Windows updates are installed. Everything runs fine except Windows Photo Viewer.
I searched and found various solutions to fix this strange and annoying problem. Today in this topic, I will be sharing all possible solutions to troubleshoot this slow Windows Photo Viewer problem.
If you are also facing this issue, try the following solutions:
Method 1: Delete Display Profile in Color Management
In Windows XP, the default “Windows Picture and Fax Viewer” program is using GDI + (device graphics) to display graphics on the screen, but Microsoft has changed this behavior in Windows 7. The chapter Windows Photo Viewer uses the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) To take full advantage of the advanced Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) architecture.
Sometimes this change can cause this annoying problem. To fix this problem, you need to remove the monitor calibration profile from the color management program.
1. Press WIN + R keys together to launch the RUN dialog box. Now type colorcpl.exe into the RUN dialog box and press Enter. It will open the Color Management window.
2. Now go to the Advanced tab and click the ” Change system defaults… ” button.
3. Now select the default profile and click the Remove button.
4. Close all programs and restart Windows.
It will solve the slow Windows Photo Viewer problem.
Method 2: Another way to Delete Calibrated Display Profile
If the first solution didn’t work for you, try the following:
1. Open Windows Explorer and go to the following folder:
C: WINDOWS System32 spool drivers color
Alternatively, you can directly open it with the command % windir% system32 spool drivers color in the RUN dialog box.
2. You should now see different files in the color directory like .icc, .camp, .gmmp, .icm, .cdmp, etc… If you find any file with a similar name as CalibratedDisplayProfile-x. icc, please delete it.
3. Restart Windows and solve the problem.
Method 3: Set Windows Photo Viewer as a default program
Make sure Windows Photo Viewer is set as the default program for viewing photos:
1. Open Control Panel, click the Default Programs icon, and then click the Set default link.
Alternatively, you can directly open it with the following command in the Run dialog box:
Explorer.exe shell ::: (17CD9488-1228-4B2F-88CE-4298E93E0966} pageDefaultProgram
2. Now click on the Windows Photo Viewer entry present in the list and then click on the option ” Set this program as default “.
3. Close the window, and Windows Photo Viewer will now open the image file faster.
Method 4: Use Registry Editor
If the solutions mentioned above don’t work for you, then it is likely a cache problem. I found a Registry tweak on Microsoft support to disable the Windows Photo Viewer cache feature, which can fix this slow problem:
1. Type regedit in RUN or search for Start and press Enter. It will open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer Viewer
3. In the right pane, create a new DWORD CacheSize and set the value to 0
4. Now restart your system, and it will speed up Windows Photo Viewer loading time.
I’m not sure the solutions mentioned above worked for me, but now the slow Windows Photo Viewer problem is fixed, and its opening image files are quick without any delay.
