The native Windows Photos app has come a long way with features like slideshow, image editing features, and sharing. But it still misses out on things like geo-tag and map view, can’t customize the UI, batch and advanced editing features, and sometimes, it is still slow. I tested several free photo viewer apps for Windows offering different and unique features.
Note: We will not discuss features already present in Windows Photos. Instead, the focus will be on features you don’t get and different use cases each app is suitable for.
Table of Contents
1. IrfanView – Ease of Use and Popular
IrfanView needs no introduction. It is an old and popular image viewer app that’s easy to use and offers good features. I was surprised to see the good old Paint dialog box with all Windows Paint tools tucked away in a corner.
IrfanView is a light app with over 50 plugins for different features. So you can choose what you need in your UI and customize it. Some examples include editing metadata, opening music, video, or PDF files, different file formats, burning, face detection, and more.
What You Get: Old and reliable image viewer and editor that’s feature-rich but also customizable to your liking.
What You Don’t Get: No tabbed view, navigate folders within, dated UI.
2. QuickLook – Quickly View Without Opening
MacBook users know what I am talking about. QuickLook mimics macOS’s image viewing capabilities. You can preview any image saved anywhere quickly without even opening the file. Simply press the spacebar to view a preview.
Helpful if you have too many images saved and can’t tell images apart. Meant to be used in addition to other advanced image viewers.
What You Get: An open-source image viewer that saves time.
What You Don’t Get: This image viewer app wasn’t designed to carry features. It does one thing and does it best.
Pro Tip: Want to share your before and after pics? Here’s how to join two photos side by side on Windows.
3. XnView MP – Supports All File Formats
XnView is another popular and free Windows image viewer app. It supports viewing over 500 and writing over 70 different image file formats. I did throw a couple of odd files downloaded from the internet at it and it opened them just fine. What I didn’t like is the Windows 7-era UI but hey! It’s fast and smooth.
Selecting or opening an image will show all sorts of image data like properties, EXIF, etc. neatly organized in tabs. While UI is vintage, it is functional and smooth. Finding what you are looking for easy.
What You Get: Extensive support for image formats, tabbed view to view/edit multiple images, add text and watermark, change metadata and tags, view detailed data sets of image, etc.
What You Don’t Get: No AI-powered image editing, geo-tags, modern and material UI.
4. GeoPhotos – View Photos on a Map
Like traveling? Who doesn’t. Like taking photos while traveling? Who doesn’t!!! GeoPhotos will map all your photos on a map based on where you were when the photo was clicked. Simply open the app, select the photo folder, and done.
A great way to visualize all the places that you have been to in the recent past. The banner ad at the top will lead to the developer’s site and will be removed if you opt for a premium plan.
The map supports layers, searching for photos by location in the free version. A one-time fee of $10.99 will remove ads, allow importing unlimited photos, and add support for more file types like .kml and .kmz, and you can add geo-tags to photos that already have them.
What You Get: View photos on a map and add geo-tags to photos that don’t have them.
What You Don’t Get: Not much editing options.
Cool Tip: Love uploading photos on Instagram? Here’s how to make the photo square without cropping it.
5. Fast UI With Modern Looks – It’s a Tie
Two other image viewer apps that you should consider and may end up liking are Visum and ImageGlass. They are not loaded with features but what they do, they do best. Both Windows image viewers below follow the latest material UI design with a modern look and dark theme. They are extremely light and fast with bare minimum editing features.
Visum Image Viewer:
ImageGlass Image Viewer:
If your basic purpose is viewing images and you don’t care much about editing tools, these two image viewers are awesome. ImageGlass has more themes and icon packs while Visum lets you crop, enhance, and resize images. Both are free and open-source.
They were both designed to be light and shuffle through images quickly, even in a large folder. I personally liked Visum more for its gallery view. ImageGlass shows images at the bottom where the thumbnail is too small for my liking but makes scrolling easier without closing the open image.
What You Get: Material design, dark theme, gallery view, fast and light, supports most popular image formats.
What You Don’t Get: Editing options are too basic.
There are many other photo viewing apps for Windows but they offer similar features and UI in a different theme. If you think we missed something, reach out to us on X/Twitter.
By the way, did you know you can make the background transparent in Windows Photos?
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Gaurav Bidasaria
Gaurav is an editor here at TechWiser but also contributes as a writer. He has more than 10 years of experience as a writer and has written how-to guides, comparisons, listicles, and in-depth explainers on Windows, Android, web, and cloud apps, and the Apple ecosystem. He loves tinkering with new gadgets and learning about new happenings in the tech world. He has previously worked on Guiding Tech, Make Tech Easier, and other prominent tech blogs and has over 1000+ articles that have been read over 50 million times.
