Using a third party viewer to open images by default will not only give you a better viewer in terms of options and performance, but it could also offer a little bit of extra security by making sure any past or future risk from opening infected images with a Windows viewer, is reduced. Microsoft have issued security updates as recently as 2014 to patch holes relating to JPEG images. Another issue is over the years Windows has been the subject of numerous JPEG exploits which can run malware simply by viewing infected JPEG images. While the default Windows picture viewers will show your images and would normally be enough for the average user, they are pretty basic and offer little in the way of compatibility, configuration or functions.

Windows XP has Picture and Fax Viewer, Vista has Photo Gallery, Windows 7 and 8 come with Windows Photo Viewer, and Windows 8 and 10 have the Photos app. If you want to view those images, it’s never really been a problem because Windows has included a built in image viewer for several years. Most people who own a computer will have photos on their computer or they use it to print pictures or move them from one device to another.

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