Everyone likes their computer setup just the way they like it. Customizing a computer is much deeper than simply changing the background and screensaver. One of the most important aspects of the computer that people like to setup is the default program list. By default programs, I am talking about the program that opens by default when you click on a certain type of file. For example when you click on a file ending in “.doc”, your computer automatically starts the Microsoft Word word processing program. This is because Microsoft Word is the default program for handling Microsoft Word files (.doc files). The bottom line here is that these default programs can be changed to whatever you desire. So what program should we set as default to open our pictures (files ending in “.jpg”)? I recommend the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer application. Often the default program for opening pictures will have been changed to god knows what. This usually means a big delay from the time you click on the picture to the time it actually is visible on the screen. Well today, we are going to learn how to set it back to the lightweight and easy-to-use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

What’s so good about the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer program? Well, it’s a fast loading program thats quite easy to use; appealing when all we want to do is quickly view our pictures. You can manually change the picture on the screen using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Alternatively with one click, you could view all the pictures in the folder as a slideshow that changes by itself! This is a great feature when you want to show off one of your albums to your friends. You can print with ease from this program, and even zoom in & out on your pictures! All of the features of this program are available via the small buttons underneath the picture on the screen. It’s very easy to use. Sold? Okay, here is how you change the default program for pictures (.jpg files) to the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

1) Highlight any picture file on your computer. It doesn’t matter which one, so long as the picture is a .jpg file.

2) Click “file” at the top left corner.

3) Click “properties”.

4) On the General tab, click on the “Change…” button.

5) Highlight “Windows Picture and Fax Viewer”.

6) Click the “OK” button.

TIP: You can follow this same procedure for any file type, and change the default program to whatever you choose. For example, you can change the default behaviour for opening music (.mp3 files).

Enjoy your beautiful pictures!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Multimedia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.