XP: Windows Stopped Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer To Preview Pictures

Contributor Icon Contributed by David Kirk     
Tag Icon Tagged: Windows  

You finally got addicted to XP’s built-in picture preview… and now it’s gone away? Here is how to redo it.


By default XP uses Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to preview pictures. It takes a while to get used to it; however, once you do, it’s hard to go back.

Several programs when installed try to take over the role of picture preview. This is very difficult to reverse. Here’s how you do it.

    1. Click Start
    2. Click Run
    3. In the textbox type: regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
    4. Click OK

You may or may not have to reboot to see your changes.

 

25 Comments -


  1. salemi ala said on November 1, 2008

    gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood thnx

  2. Werner Kujnisch said on November 2, 2008

    The advice about getting Windows Picture and Fax Viewer back worked for me. Everytime I wanted to see a picture, Paint would come up instead. Now I got my computer back to normal again .. thanks to the instructions above. Thanks …

  3. davak said on November 2, 2008

    You are welcome! Thanks for visiting and your kind comments.

  4. Jimmy said on December 14, 2008

    Thank you so much!

  5. Roger said on December 24, 2008

    Thanks you so much now is working

  6. Amir said on February 16, 2009

    windows pic and fax viewer is not working in my pc. I am using win xp. how i can solve this?

  7. moka said on April 1, 2009

    thank u

  8. Jerry said on April 3, 2009

    Fantastic! Worked just like you said it would! I’m sick of Reg Cure and all those orther crap co’s trying to push their junk to fix all these stupid Windows errors! You gave the right answer and it didn’t cost me a dime!

    Thank you!
    Jerry

  9. Happy Now said on July 15, 2009

    This worked perfect for my problem! Thank you very much. :)

  10. Anonymous said on August 9, 2009

    After this it says ” LoadLibrary(“shimgvw.dll”)failed-Invalid access to memory location.
    now what to do.

    please mail at armanthestar@gmail.com

  11. Aziz said on November 14, 2009

    I tried your suggestion to retrieve the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. It worked immediately. I did not even have to restart my computer.

    Many thanks
    Aziz

  12. askfault said on March 10, 2010

    Thanks for the fix to restore my Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

    Hard to find but simple to repair.

    registering the dll did the trick instantly!

  13. Magic said on March 18, 2010

    I recently lost Windows Picture & Fax Viewer from Windows XP and spent several hours/days trying to find it
    .
    As a last resort I

    1. went back into Microsoft Office Picture Manager (which seemed to have
    replaced Picture and Fax Viewer)

    2. selected ‘Tools’ from the header bar

    3. then selected ‘File Types’ from the sub-heading

    4. then ‘unticked’ all the ‘ticked’ boxes in the listing

    5. pressed ‘OK’

    6. and exited Office Picture Manager.

    And Windows Picture & Fax Viewer was back! Hallellulia!

    It worked for me – perhaps it will work for you too. I do hope so.

    I didn’t even have to reboot my machine. Magic!

  14. Anonymous said on March 21, 2010

    thanks alot. i wish i had come to your page an hour ago! perfect first try

  15. Anonymous said on April 2, 2010

    tells me not cannot be found make sure it is a register so can find

  16. Anonymous said on April 7, 2010

    When task above was performed, a statment came back claiming that the module “shimgvw.dll” was loaded but the entry-point DllRegisterServer was not found.

    I was instructed to make sure that “shimgvw.dll” is a valid DLL or OCX file and to try again.

    What did do wrong?

  17. Carolee said on June 21, 2010

    I tried this and I got a message that it succeeded. But when I tried to use the viewer I got the sound for device failed to connect. How do I download or get windows and fax viewer back and make it work. This seems to be the only way my new Canon PowerShot will download pictures. The camera downloads fine to other computers I have tried it on.

  18. Ceebee71 said on June 22, 2010

    I have Windows XP, have lost Windows Picture & Fax Viewer. I did what you state to get it and this is what I get:
    “shimgvw.dll is not an executable file and no registration helper is registered for this file type”
    So what do I do now?

    Chuck (ceebee71@shaw.ca)

  19. Chuck said on August 12, 2010

    I tried getting the Windows Picture & Fax viewer up again with your suggestion (above) and this came up: “shimgvw” is not an executable file and no registration helper is registered for this file type.”
    So what to do now?

  20. Hi_jv05 said on September 9, 2010

    nice..thank you so much!

  21. Offtheshelflibrarian said on November 1, 2010

    THANK YOU!!! it worked perfectly after completing this step. Without rebooting.

  22. breezy said on December 21, 2010

    how do i make my pictures automatically open with the windows picture and fax viewer?? right now they are automatically set to photosuite image…. and its annoying

  23. Youwinagain9 said on January 2, 2011

    I did the Run: regsvr32 shimgvw.dll and received this message:
    regsvr32 shimgvw.dll is NOT an executable file and no registion helper is registered for this file type.
    So what do I do now to get back the Picture & Fax Viewer on my Windows XP?
    Please reply to: youwinagain9@yahoo.ca (subject line: XP Help)

    Thanks

  24. Smith said on July 5, 2011

    Worked straight away for me without having to re-boot!!

  25. Carol said on September 2, 2011

    Worked straight away for me without having to re-boot too, whoohooo, very happy!!

 

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