Image viewer options?

[effCup]

Originally Posted by Ace1965

The 4 or 5 I randomly looked at were JPEG.

Yes they were previously there and have just disappeared. I have viewed them in the past. I'm not sure how to view an image in my browser. You mean cut it and move it to my desktop?

No, drag & drop your image file into an e.g. Mozilla Firefox or other such web browser window, but from your additional comments below it does appear as if your files have been damaged or corrupted somehow, rather than simply a problem of file format, so trying to use a browser to view the files is unlikely to work.

Originally Posted by Ace1965

If you look at the properties or just hover the cursor over them, instead of it being 200KB or 900KB or whatever it is, they are all like 348BYTES. Not kilobytes or megabytes but BYTES. Whatever was there is gone and has been replaced by just the generic icon that you get before it gets filled in with your thumbnail.

Not sure what to recommend, sorry. It may be a needle-in-haystack situation. Check your disk(s) for viruses/other such mal-ware. Maybe check your disk(s) for disk format errors. Then you can try experimenting with some *copies* of "sound" jpg image files, e.g. open those *copies* in Windows Photo Viewer & see if the file gets similarly so damaged/corrupted. Even if they do, you'll have kept the other copies of those images & so lost nothing, right?

I still think it unlikely Windows Photo Viewer will be the culprit but I don't know what other stuff might be on your system. /shrug/

[Ace1965]

I tried both suggestions of XnView and Faststone and that's not really what I'm looking for.

Also I had a situation a couple of days ago where I saved a picture, gave it a new name (Valeria101 I think), then went into the library to move it to a new folder and saw that had disappeared like some of the others I described earlier. So I went back and repeated the same process. Saved it, renamed it, went to look at it and it had disappeared again. Ok so now on the third attempt I saved it, gave it a different name (Valeria102), went to look at it and it was there. So I went in and renamed it to what I was trying to call it earlier (Valeria101) and everything is fine. The whole thing is just bizarre.

[MrInBetween]

Originally Posted by Ace1965

I tried both suggestions of XnView and Faststone and that's not really what I'm looking for.

Like others, I would recommend IrfanView, and would do so even to those who don't have a problem with Windows Photo Viewer. You say you have it, but you don't say why it doesn't meet your needs. It's highly configurable - so highly that it can take some time getting it to do exactly what you want. For example, you can set it to always open a picture in full screen (without window borders) and also to open that picture at the original size rather than fit it to the screen. This doesn't allow me, at any rate, to scroll around it with the mouse wheel - but I don't have a mouse wheel as such, I have a touchpad, so it might be different for you - but I can move up and down with the arrow key buttons and also by pressing the right mouse button and moving the 'mouse'.

Originally Posted by Ace1965

Also I had a situation a couple of days ago where I saved a picture, gave it a new name (Valeria101 I think), then went into the library to move it to a new folder and saw that had disappeared like some of the others I described earlier. So I went back and repeated the same process. Saved it, renamed it, went to look at it and it had disappeared again. Ok so now on the third attempt I saved it, gave it a different name (Valeria102), went to look at it and it was there. So I went in and renamed it to what I was trying to call it earlier (Valeria101) and everything is fine. The whole thing is just bizarre.

The other question is what is it that is destroying your pictures. If you just view a picture in Photo Viewer, it shouldn't damage anything because it shouldn't be saving it; although if you use the Rotate clockwise/counterclockwise buttons or shortcuts, then (unlike, say, IrfanView) this saves the file without requiring confirmation.

But I'm not clear from your description what you're doing. When you say you 'saved a picture', do you mean you saved it from your browser, and then renamed it - in which case where does Photo Viewer come into it? - or do you mean you took a picture you had already created or saved by some other means, and then opened it and saved it in Photo Viewer - although Photo Viewer doesn't seem to allow 'Save' as such, only 'Make a Copy'. If you're just making copies or renaming, why do you need to enter Photo Viewer or any other software - unless what you're describing now is not your original problem but an additional one. Sorry, I'm a bit confused.

[nissan]

Originally Posted by Sticky

used this for ages,rock solid,configurable ... portable version if you want .. basic editing,set as wallpaper e.t.c

best of all multimonitor support

FastStone http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm


edit:- forgot to say its free .. donate if you like it

I used FS for years and it was excellent.

My Windows XP computer just died after all these years and I now have a Windows 10 desktop.

But, FS 7.5 (latest available) will not allow me to edit images despite trying everything I can think of.

"Failed to save the file. It might be read-only, or in use by another program"

is the reason given whilst I am trying to do the editing.

I have tried to email FS support to ask them, but I see little activity there, so I am not hopeful of receiving a reply.

Is there anyone here who can help?

Thanks.

P.S. I do not really want to adopt a different viewing/editing platform, as FS was so good and I am quite used to it, and find it difficult to adopt new systems.

Just having to get used to Windows 10 after being quite happy with W/XP is hard enough.

[PoloMintGuy]

Hi there nissan!

"Failed to save the file. It might be read-only, or in use by another program"

Have you've made sure the image isn't actually Read only?

You can come across images with this setting randomly, just right click the image & select Properties.

If Read Only is ticked at the bottom of the Properties box just untick it & click OK (be aware that you will now be able to change it so make a copy if you want to preserve the original):



The other possible problem is where you're trying to save the edited files, try a different location, your generic Win10 Pictures folder should work.

Failing the above, try right clicking FastSone & "Run as Administrator".

Now see if it allows you to save an edited image.

Hope this is of use!

[nissan]

Thank you for the quick and informed post.

I will try your suggestions as best I can, not being computer literate to any great extent.

[Gordon3]

I have had a similar problem, in Windows, with Microsoft Office Picture Manager; not a bad tool, but very inconsistent. As such, since I don't know what applications are being used, I would concur that it's an application issue. My go-to applications are in the Open Source arena, so the OP may wish to take one of the other Windows-based suggestions.

But, for what's it worth, GIMP is dependable & rock-solid and available in Windows, though requiring a longer workflow for simple tasks. I've also gotten into ImageMagick & even Python images for automated photo editing, but these are pretty much Linux-only solutions.

[nissan]

Originally Posted by PoloMintGuy

Hi there nissan!

Have you've made sure the image isn't actually Read only?

You can come across images with this setting randomly, just right click the image & select Properties.

If Read Only is ticked at the bottom of the Properties box just untick it & click OK (be aware that you will now be able to change it so make a copy if you want to preserve the original):



The other possible problem is where you're trying to save the edited files, try a different location, your generic Win10 Pictures folder should work.

Failing the above, try right clicking FastSone & "Run as Administrator".

Now see if it allows you to save an edited image.

Hope this is of use!

I tried a number of avenues, without success, before your post.

The one that ultimately worked is "right click" on the desktop icon for "FastStone" and "run as Administrator".

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Now, FastStone is excellent again.

P.S. I have now found that if I close FS the next time I opened it again the "Administrator" permission had been revoked.

All I needed to do was to "right click" again on Administrator, and I will need to do that for each subsequent session.

I can live with that.

[PoloMintGuy]

Hi there nissan!

Originally Posted by nissan

The one that ultimately worked is "right click" on the desktop icon for "FastStone" and "run as Administrator".

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Great, happy to have helped!

Originally Posted by nissan

TP.S. I have now found that if I close FS the next time I opened it again the "Administrator" permission had been revoked.

All I needed to do was to "right click" again on Administrator, and I will need to do that for each subsequent session.

I can live with that.

That is normal behavior for right click Run as Administrator, however it can be tiresome for a program you use frequently.

Fortunately there's a simple workaround.

Right click the FastStone icon & select Properties.

In the box that pops up, select Compatibility & tick the option Run this program as an administrator & click OK.



Now when you double click FastStone it should work as desired without having to always remember to right click Run as... each time.

Note, only ever set the Run as Admin options for programs you know & trust.

Hope this is of use!

[nissan]

Thank you PMG.

Your added suggestion has worked 100%!

It was also clearly expressed - a bonus for the non-computer literates like myself.