Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org.
QUESTION: When I double click a picture it opens in Windows Media Center. It seems to take forever and it’s not what I want to happen. How can I change this?
PC CLUB: Every PC has a default picture viewer and this can vary from PC to PC depending on your settings and on the software that you installed. All versions of Windows have a default picture viewer as follows:
- Windows XP uses the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
- Vista uses the Windows Photo Gallery
- Windows 7 uses the Windows Photo Viewer unless the Windows Live Photo Gallery has been installed
What this means is that these applications will open whenever a picture, most frequently a JPEG, is double-clicked. However, any one of a couple of events could change this. For example, if you install an application such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, this program will become the default. The same is true should you install the free Microsoft Live Photo Gallery. This program will work with any version of Windows. However, you are able to change this default setting any time you want with a few simple steps as follows:
Windows XP and Vista
- Locate a picture and right-click it
- Click Open with and click Choose Program
- If you see a program listed in the windows that opens, select it
- Place a check in “Always use the selected program……”
- If you don’t see the program that you want, click the Browse button and search for the program. IT will usually be under the Program Files folder.
- Click OK
Windows 7
- Locate a picture and right-click it
- Click Open with and click Choose default program
- Use the option “Select a program from a list…..”
- Continue with Step 3 under Windows XP but in this case you have to search in two folders, Program Files and Program Files (x86).
There are other methods for doing this and can be located by searching the Internet with Google or your favorite search engine. Just search using a phrase such as “Windows 7 change default program” without the quotes of course. Most methods found by searching will advise you to use the Control Panel to change the default setting. This method will help you to understand more about Windows and it’s always good to have an alternate method.
Ed Schwartz is a member of the North Orange County Computer Club. To send in a question, go to edwardns.com and click the Contact Me menu. Archives of previous columns are also on the website.