re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' Wednesday, July 14, 2004 at 8:35 am Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum Posted by Ghostie (2 messages posted) The correct solution to this is as follows: Under each extension in HKCR (CLASSES_ROOT), for example - .bmp, the (Default) setting will point to a MimeType. Search for that MimeType under HKCR (e.g. .bmp's (Default) is "HKCR\Paint.Picture"). Look under that key's "shell\open" entry for a "DropTarget". From what I understand from MSDN, DropTarget is new as of Windows 2000, but was abused by XP. There should be a "Clsid" entry with the value of "{E84FDA7C-1D6A-45F6-B725-CB260C236066}" in there. The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is actually a COM Server and is what is pointed to by the DropTarget verb. Unregistering this (and any other COM Server) without understanding what happens is the worst thing you can do to the shell and your OS (namely leaving around dangling registry entries that slow down the entire OS). Instead, manually rename either the "Clsid" key or the "DropTarget" key to something like "Clsid_2" or "DropTarget_2" to fix the problem. The shell apparently looks at the "DropTarget" verb before the "command" verb. You haven't lost data and can revert if you don't like the change (assuming you can remember how the registry is organized between now and then). On Wednesday, January 7, 2004 at 1:53 pm, dave jamison wrote: >I have a related question about How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer >as my default image viewer. What I want to do is figure out how to empty the old >pictures that XP is caching somewhere. Whenever I open up a new picture using Win >Fax & Pic viewer, every old picture is still available by clicking the forwrd and >backward arrows. I can't find anything on the MS web site on clearing this history. >Thanks > > Written in response to: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (dave jamison: Wednesday, January 7, 2004 at 1:53 pm) There are presently no replies to this message. All messages in this thread [show all] Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (dave jamison: Wed, Jan 7, 2004, 1:53 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (LB: Wed, Jan 7, 2004, 3:09 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (LB: Wed, Jan 7, 2004, 3:15 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (Tom Swanson: Wed, Jan 7, 2004, 6:59 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (LB: Thu, Jan 8, 2004, 7:19 am) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (James: Mon, Jan 12, 2004, 2:51 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (PJ: Sun, Feb 8, 2004, 5:37 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (kwaide: Sat, May 15, 2004, 4:45 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (IHS: Sat, Mar 27, 2004, 2:55 pm) re: Question about 'How do I turn off the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer as my default image viewer?' (Ghostie: Wed, Jul 14, 2004, 8:35 am) Reply or follow-up to this message Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum