Photos app is the default image viewer in Windows 11. The Photos app not only serves as an image viewer, but it can also resize images.
While the Photos app is a decent picture viewer, several users are unhappy as it usually takes a few seconds to open images. When compared to the classic Windows Photo Viewer and third-party image viewers such as the Image Glass, it is noticeably slower.
Many users have installed other image viewers on their Windows 11 computers and want to set it as the default image viewer. As you likely know, when you double-click on an image file, Windows 11 opens it in the default image viewer.
Windows 11 offers multiple options to change the default image viewer. Here are the two ways to change the default picture viewer in Windows 11.
Method 1 of 3
Change the default image viewer via the right-click menu in Windows 11
Step 1: Open File Explorer and navigate to a folder containing image files.
Step 2: Right-click on a picture file, click Open with, click Choose another app, select the app you want to set as default, and then click the Always button to set it as the default image viewer for the selected image file type.
That is, if the image that you right-clicked on was a JPEG image, you changed the default picture viewer only for the JPEG file type. You need to repeat these steps again for PNG and other image file types as well.
Method 2 of 3
Change the default image viewer in Windows 11 via Settings
In this guide, we are setting the popular Image Glass as the default image viewer. You can use these directions for any app.
Step 1: Open the Windows 11 Settings app using the search or with the help of the Windows logo + I hotkey.
Step 2: In the left pane of Settings, click Apps. Now, on the right side, click Default apps.
Step 3: On this page, in the Set defaults for applications, look for the app you want to set as the default picture viewer and then click on it. You can also use the available search box to find the app quickly.
Step 4: The resulting page shows the file formats supported by the selected app. Click the Choose a default button to see a flyout, and then click the app name you want to set as default to set it as the default image viewer for the selected file type.
You must repeat this for all file types mentioned on the page or at least for .jpeg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .jpg, and .webp file types.
Method 3 of 3
Another way to change the default image viewer in Windows 11 via the Settings app
Step 1: Open Windows 11 Settings. Go to Apps > Default apps page.
Step 2: On this page, you should see Set default for a file type or link type section and a search box below it.
Step 3: In the search box, type .webp and then click Choose a default button.
Step 4: Click on the app’s name you want to make as default to set it as the default image viewer for WEBP file type.
Step 5: Next, you need to repeat the directions in Step 3 and Step 4 for other popular image file types such as png, bmp, webp, and jpg to change the default image viewer.
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