# Solved: How do I make FastStone my default image viewer?



## lo_ol (Oct 14, 2010)

Apparently Gimp is my default image viewer but I rather have FastStone as my default image viewer. XP is my OS if it must be known


----------



## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Right click on a picture .. Choose "Open With" ... "Choose Program" ..
Browse to find and select .. FastStone .. Check "Always use the selected program ... " ... OK

I'm not familiar with FastStone .. But you should be able to tell it to become your default viewer ..
have you looked in FastStone Options ??


----------



## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

You got me curious .. so I installed FastStone .. (I'm an Irfanview fan)
Open FastStone .. press F12 .. Click on the Associations tab ..
And choose which images you want to open in FastStone .. (or check Select all) .. by default.


----------



## lo_ol (Oct 14, 2010)

Noyb said:


> Right click on a picture .. Choose "Open With" ... "Choose Program" ..
> Browse to find and select .. FastStone .. Check "Always use the selected program ... " ... OK
> 
> I'm not familiar with FastStone .. But you should be able to tell it to become your default viewer ..
> have you looked in FastStone Options ??


I looked at FastStone options but I couldn't find where i can select it to be my default image viewer



Noyb said:


> You got me curious .. so I installed FastStone .. (I'm an Irfanview fan)
> Open FastStone .. press F12 .. Click on the Associations tab ..
> And choose which images you want to open in FastStone .. (or check Select all) .. by default.


I installed ifranview, gimp and faststone right after each other and after testing them I like FastStone the best because it loads up quickest while gimp is the slowest.

Thanks for helping me out there bud!


----------



## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

lo_ol said:


> I looked at FastStone options but I couldn't find where i can select it to be my default image viewer


See my post #3 here again.
I really don't believe that FastStone is quicker than Irfanview.
We'll have to have a contest and determine the winner  

Irfanview can also be set up to recognize an external editor .. Such as your Gimp or my Photoshop ..
And can open the image in the external (advanced) editor directly from Irfanview.
This, and a couple of other reasons, is why I prefer Irfanview as my default viewer and basic image editor.


----------



## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

To set Irfanvew as the default viewer for pictures ...
Options >> Set File Associations >> Images Only >> OK
See the bottom of This Page for some more Irfanview tricks and shortcuts.

This is probably more that you wanted to know .. 
But you can setup XP's Right Click context menu so that an advanced editor appears at the top of the RClick Context menu ..
allowing you to open an Image directly in an advanced Editor...
without have to go the "Open With" >> "Multiple Choice Test" route.

You can't do this in W7 .. But I know how to edit Irfanviews registry to make W7 work *almost* as good as XP ...
Should you be unfortunate enough to have to get a new computer.


----------



## wilson44512 (Mar 25, 2006)

lo_ol said:


> I looked at FastStone options but I couldn't find where i can select it to be my default image viewer


open faststone and go to settings then click the tap that says associations. then put a check mark in every file type










i like faststone much better then Irfanvew


----------



## Gomar (Dec 9, 2007)

I was frustrated by FastStone so I use IrfanView as default. XnView is pretty good as well.


----------



## Kariann1 (Oct 2, 2008)

I have mentioned that I have ZoomBrowser EX and have lost all my photos the past two months after I upload them from my camera. I see the photos but once I disconnect my camera, the photos are gone. Would changing to another system (FastStone or Irfanview) find those missing photos? I have Windows XP. I tried to make a copy of my photos, but it wouldn't work. I still have the photos on my camera.

I don't know a whole lot about computers, but the Kodak Easy Share program was much better and easier to use. Unfortunately, the camera is not as good as my Canon 1100. I had hoped to sell some items on eBay, but without locating the pictures, I cannot do this.


----------



## lo_ol (Oct 14, 2010)

^ dowload.com aka cnet.com has freeware utilities that could help you recover deleted data from your hard drive

Thanks to everyone who answered my question my troubles have vanished thanks to your responses


----------



## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Here's some more file recovery utilities ..

Did setting the FastStone associations fix your problem ??


----------



## lo_ol (Oct 14, 2010)

^ Yes, thanks to the help here I finally made FastStone my default image viewer


----------



## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Great ... Look at the top of this page .. You can mark your question "Solved"


----------



## lo_ol (Oct 14, 2010)

^ done!


----------

