I have every time the same problem, when I want to look quickly to some pictures on windows, the default viewer is the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (WPFV). This is a fast way to look at all the pictures in a folder without to have to wait until a bigger application has started up.

Windows7(64Bit) Photo Viewer Background-Color changed successfully

But there is set a default background-color (white), what seems to be not changeable. (how sick is Microsoft, do deny users to change this?)

There are the global settings for the default window-color under display settings. But even if you change these settings it’ll have no effect on the Picture Viewer background.

But anyhow there’s an option to do it if you run in Windows7 (64Bit Version).

Go to Start > Run… > type in “regedit” > go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows Photo Viewer > Viewer >

there are already one entry called: “MainWndPos”.

Just add one entry with a rightclick on the blank area, > new > DWORD (32 Bit) Value > change name to: “BackgroundColor” > hit Enter.

Doubleclick on the value you just added. change the value to “ff111111″ if you want a nice almost black background(what I’ve taken), use “ff333333″ for a brighter one, or choose your’s here and replace the letters after the ff with your preferred HEX-color-code. > press OK.

For maybe existing text in the viewer(like if your image is not ready) add also this value:

Just add another entry with a rightclick on the blank area, > new > DWORD (32 Bit) Value > change name to: “TextColor” > hit Enter.

Doubleclick on the value you just added. change the value to “ffffffff” (f*8) for a white font-color if you use a dark background > press OK.

Restart the viewer > you’ll see the result.

Registry Entry to change the Background of the Photo Viewer in Windows 7

the .reg file is here: viewer.reg
just download and execute(only on Windows7 64Bit)

OK, better choice is defenitely this viewer, free fast and with customizable background-color out of the view-panel via right-click:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jpegview/files/jpegview/1.0.21/JPEGView_1_0_21.zip/download