Photo viewer refers to the software that’s needed when people want to view photos or pictures on a device. In general, every system including Windows 10 comes with a photo viewer for viewing photo conveniently. But it may have some drawbacks so users prefer to find a better image viewer. What’s the best photo viewer for Windows 10? Please find your answer here.
Microsoft Photos in Windows 10 Is Not Good Enough
A photo viewer is necessary for users to view photos, images, and pictures in any system. The Windows Photo Viewer is a fast and clean image viewer that comes with Windows systems until Windows 10 introduces a new Photos app to replace it. However, the Photos app is not as good as the previous Windows Photo Viewer in many aspects.
Though many image and video editing features are added to Photos, users are not satisfied with it since it has some drawbacks: loading or responding very slow, crashing often, supporting only a few image file formats, etc. That’s why many users are looking for the best photo viewer for Windows 10. If you’re one of those who’re looking for a photos viewing app better than Microsoft Photos in Windows 10, you are reading the right article.
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What Is the Best Photo Viewer for Windows 10
The following list contains the most popular photo viewers for Windows including Windows Photo Viewer and Microsoft Photos. You should choose which one you think is the best photo viewer to use.
#1. Windows Photo Viewer
Though Windows Photo Viewer doesn’t come with Windows 10 you can still bring it back manually and then set it as your default photo viewer. For some users, Windows Photo Viewer has always been the best image viewer.
Pros:
- Simple user interface with common features
Cons:
- Little image editing features, not supporting GIFs
#2. Microsoft Photos
The Photos app is first introduced with Windows 10 as a replacement for Windows Photo Viewer. It allows you to edit photos with no hassle and do more things, such as searching photos for places. Microsoft treats it as the best free photo viewer for Windows 10.
Pros:
- Allows cropping, rotating photos, adjusting color/lighting, and more
- Able to fix red eyes and blemishes in your photos
- Viewing photos as a slideshow
- Displaying photos in a scrollable timeline
Cons:
- Photos app loading or responding very slow
- Photos app crashing often on Windows 10
- Only a few image file formats support
#3. IrfanView
Users coming from the default Microsoft Photos app always think IrfanView as the best photo viewer Windows 10. It is a very compact/lightweight app that’s been around for a very long time (the footprint is only 2 ~ 3 MB).
Pros:
- Loads photos and images quickly
- Supports OCR
- Supports multiple languages
- Supports a wide array of image formats
- Has lots of image editing functions
- Has a screen capturing feature
- Allows batch conversion & advanced image processing
Cons:
- User interface (UI) is outdated
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#4. Movavi Photo Manager
The amazing face recognition feature built in Movavi Photo Manager makes it the best image viewer Windows 10. Movavi Photo Manager helps you save photos of the same person in the same folder and it is compatible with both Windows and Mac platform.
Pros:
- Sorts images by date, location, or other metadata
- Supports common image file formats
- Detects faces in photos to create an album for each person
- Allows adding tags to photos
- Selects visually similar images automatically
Cons:
- Images should be uploaded to the app manually
- Search lacks contextual queries
- Offers only 3-day free trial
#5. 123 Photo Viewer
123 PhotoViewer is a popular, modern, UWP application; it is very light and fast. The interface of 123 PhotoViewer is based on the Fluent design language and comes with the support for OneDrive.
Pros:
- Supports still image file formats as well as animation formats
- Supports batch image rename and format change
- Supports OneDrive
- Provides easy UI
- Compatible with touchscreen
- Has slideshow mode
- Offers basic editing filters and effects
Cons:
- Responds slightly slower
- Can’t autodetect and auto-scan folders
#6. XnView
XnView is not only a good choice for viewing photo, but also a wonderful image converter and browser for Windows 10.
Pros:
- Works for computers and smartphone devices
- Supports batch file rename
- Supports large file format base
- Supports scripting for basic tasks
- Starts a slideshow of images in one click
Cons:
- It’s free only for private use
- Doesn’t offer basic editing
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Other Best Photo Viewer Choices
The following apps can also work as the best photo viewer for Windows 10:
- HoneyView
- ImageGlass
- Nomacs
- FastStone Viewer (FastStone Image Viewer)
- Pictureflect Photo Viewer
- JPEGView
- WildBit Viewer
- GonVisor
- Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Apowersoft Photo Viewer (best picture viewer for your HEIF and HEIC images)