Viewing Images in Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player

Although Microsoft Internet Explorer is generally known as a web browsing application, it can also be utilized to as an efficient image viewing application, and one which is already installed on your Windows XP PC. To open an image file in Microsoft Internet Explorer directly, launch the application and click File>Open. Next, click Browse, and in the dropdown box after the caption 'Files of type', select 'All Files'. Now, choose the image file of your choice in the corresponding drive and folder, and click open.

Microsoft Internet Explorer supports only two image files for viewing, namely JPEG and GIF in comparison to the other two applications mentioned in Part 2 of this series. However, the best part about this application is that it is able to play the GIF animation files as true animation files. In contrast, Windows Picture & Fax Viewer and Microsoft Paint preview only the first frame of a GIF animation.

You can also print your image files through Microsoft Internet Explorer, just like you can with other image viewers. In addition, the application lets you save an image file as either a JPEG or a GIF image file only, offering a bit less freedom in image conversion than its counterparts.

Although it may not seem to be a preferred choice for the purpose, your good old Windows Media Player might be of vital importance to view an image file if on a fateful day you find yourself stuck when you none of your image viewing applications is working due to some system crash or other possible reason. To open an image file within Windows Media Player, click File>Open and choose 'Any File' from the drop-down box after the caption 'Files of type'. Now, click on the icon of your desired image file, and select 'Open'.

Windows Media Player supports JPEG, BMP, GIF and PNG image formats for viewing, but unfortunately it doesn't allow you to save the images in any other image format so you can't convert your images with this application. Also, it doesn't provide support for printing your images. Still, at the time of a serious system problem with your PC, Windows Media Player might prove to be a real nice helping hand.