In the left pane of the app, navigate to Get Classic Apps > Activate Windows Photo Viewer.Ĭlick on the on the button of the same name, and voila - the app is now enabled!īut that won't make it open images in File Explorer and other apps. Quick tip: Winaero Tweaker users can enable Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11 with one click. These entries must be added under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Photo Viewer\Capabilities\FileAssociations. Specially, it "tells" the app that it can handle the following file types: The Registry file re-creates the missing "capabilities" for the Photo Viewer. It allows you to restore Windows 11 defaults and undone the Photo Viewer app registration in the OS. Also, the ZIP archive includes an undo tweak, Disable Classic Photo Viewer.reg. The Registry file restores the system registration and enables the Windows Photo Viewer app. Once you add the contents of the REG to the Registry, you need to set file associations to Windows Photo Viewer.Double-click the Enable Classic Photo Viewer.reg file and confirm the merge operation.Extract the included REG files to any folder.Download these Registry files in a ZIP archive.Enable the Classic Windows Photo Viewer app Optionally, you can add the Preview context menu item that invokes the classic Photoviewer app. Second, you need to associate the image files with Windows Photo Viewer and set it as the default app for them. First of all, you need to activate the app in the Registry. To enable the classic Windows Photo Viewer app in Windows 11, you need to perform a number of steps. From the commandline or PowerShell, you should now be able to type "notepad++ filename.txt" or "notepad++.exe filename.Add Image Preview context menu for Photo Viewer in Windows 11 Enable Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 11 If the command prompt or PowerShell was already open, close them and reopen them before trying (they use a cached copy of the path and will not recognize modifications until next instance)ħ. Click Ok on all dialogs to save changes and close themĦ.
For "Variable value:" scroll to the end (click in the box & press the End key on keyboard) and add a semicolon (no spaces before or after the semicolon) followed by the path to notepad++ (for me this is " C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++")ĥ. At the bottom, under "System variables" scroll down to the Path Variable and Double-Click itĤ. Click the "Environment Variables." button at the bottomģ. Open "Advanced System Settings" from Computer PropertiesĢ. I just added the path to notepad++ to my system path and it works perfectly:ġ. Your method is far more complex than it has to be.