The Pictures library and Windows Photo Viewer

 

The Pictures library is the main way to find and organize pictures on your computer. To open the Pictures library, click the Start button , and then click Pictures.

 

Windows Photo Viewer is a feature in Windows that you can use to view and print your digital pictures. Double-click a picture in the Pictures library to open it in Windows Photo Viewer.

Windows Photo Viewer and the Pictures library can do some of the same things. For example, you can view pictures, print pictures, and see a slide show of your pictures from either the Pictures library or Photo Viewer. So, which one should you use?

In general, the Pictures library is the place to find and organize your pictures. The Pictures library lets you see all of your pictures in one place and makes it easy to view them by date, tag, and other criteria. Using Windows Photo Viewer, you can rotate pictures, zoom in, view pictures at full size and view your pictures as a slide show.

Working with your pictures

After your pictures are in your computer, you will probably want to work with them. You can view several pictures on a single screen, view a single picture at full size, rotate your pictures, and see them in a slide show.

Using thumbnails

The Photos library lets you display your pictures as thumbnails—small versions of the full-sized pictures. To display as many thumbnails as possible, make the Pictures library window fill your screen by clicking its Maximize button .

To change the size of thumbnails, click the Views button , and then move the slider up or down. You can make thumbnails smaller to quickly browse a large picture collection. Or, make thumbnails larger to see more detail in each picture. Changing the thumbnail size does not affect the full-sized version of the picture.

To return to medium-sized thumbnails, click the Views button, and then click Medium Icons.

Rotate a picture

Vertical pictures might appear sideways in Windows Photo Viewer. You can rotate these pictures to the correct orientation by clicking the Rotate counterclockwise button or Rotate clockwise button .

View a picture at full size

To view a picture so that it fills most of the Photo Viewer window, double-click the picture in the Pictures library.

To see the largest possible view of the picture, maximize the Photo Viewer window.

To zoom in on part the picture, click the Zoom button and move the slider up. While you're zoomed in, you can drag any part of the picture with the hand pointer to move the picture around. To return to the regular view, click the Fit to window button .

See a slide show of your pictures

You can view your digital pictures as a full-screen slide show that runs automatically.

To start a slide show, double-click a picture to open it in Photo Viewer, and then click the Play slide show button at the bottom of Photo Viewer. The slide show will include all of the pictures in the current view.