ELX-PhotoViewer
An image viewer that opens before you let go of the mouse
A file shell with a folder tree, a file list and a preview pane — and a full-screen mode that appears almost instantly when you double-click a picture in Explorer. Built on the Windows imaging API directly, with a photo editor and a video editor in the same installer and no separate runtime to install. Inspired by the classic ACDSee of the early 2000s: the same lightness and speed, on a modern foundation.
It opens immediately
Launched by file association, the program creates only what it needs to show the picture. The main window is built later, if you ask for it — which is why a double click in Explorer produces an image rather than a splash screen. A 4K photograph appears in about 60 ms, already turned the right way up according to EXIF.
Nothing but the picture
Black background, the image, and the taskbar pushed under the window so the screen is genuinely full. Arrows, page keys, space and the wheel page through the folder; Home and End jump to its ends.
A real file shell
Folder tree, a file list shown as a table, a plain list or thumbnails, image properties, a disk cache for thumbnails, sorting by any column, and a light preview pane — light because a dark one fights with the photographs. The open folder is watched, network folders included, so the list updates itself.
The cursor stays where you left it
After a rename, a paste, a deletion or a batch conversion, the list returns not merely to the same file but to the same screen row. You are never left hunting for the picture you were just looking at.
Batch conversion and rename
Convert a selection to JPEG or PNG with quality, chroma subsampling and EXIF carried over — or rename a folder full of files by a pattern, with the result visible before you commit.
Animated GIF, and GIF to MP4
Animations play in full screen with the frame delays taken from the file, and can be saved as H.264 video using what Windows already provides — no external codecs.
Photo and video editors
Ctrl+E opens the built-in photo editor. The video editor trims a clip by time, crops it, adds a frame, a caption, a watermark or a logo, blurs an area and exports to MP4 with the ffmpeg installed alongside. Both can also be reached from the Explorer context menu.
The lightness of the old ACDSee
ACDSee was an excellent program, and in the early 2000s people loved it above all for being light: it opened instantly and stayed out of the way of your photos. Today's versions have become noticeably heavier. ELX-PhotoViewer is built from scratch on modern Windows technology, but with that same lightness: a folder tree, thumbnails and a preview in one window — open a folder and look.
Screenshots
Full-screen viewing
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Escape | Leave full screen |
Enter | Open the file shell at the current picture |
Arrows, PgUp, PgDn, Space, wheel | Page through the folder |
Home / End | First and last picture |
Ctrl + wheel, + / − | Zoom |
1 | Actual size, 100 % |
0 or F | Fit to the screen |
Del | Send to the recycle bin; the next picture appears in its place |
| Drag with the mouse | Pan a zoomed picture |
The file shell
- Subfolders appear in the list:
..first, then folders, then files — so the keyboard alone is enough to walk the tree. - Three list modes, switched with Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 and Ctrl+3: a table with name, size, date and image properties, a plain list, or thumbnails with a disk cache. Video thumbnails (mkv, mp4, avi, ts, mts, wmv, 3gp) can be switched on in the settings.
- The open folder is watched, network folders included: files added or removed elsewhere appear and disappear in the list without a manual refresh.
- Sorting by any column; folders and
..stay on top, and the chosen order is remembered. Sorting by resolution reads the dimensions of the whole folder in the background and rebuilds the list when they are ready. - File operations: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V and Del, plus drag and drop inside the program and to and from Explorer.
- Within one drive files move, between drives they copy; Ctrl forces a copy and Shift forces a move.
- Cut files are dimmed until they are pasted, and after pasting the cursor lands on what appeared.
- When a pasted file meets one with the same name, a replace dialog shows both pictures side by side. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V in the same folder make a copy next to the original —
photo-copy.jpg. - Deleting a folder asks separately, and says how many files and subfolders are inside.
- F2 on a single file renames it right in the list; with several files selected it opens batch rename.
- Ctrl+T edits file attributes, Ctrl+H shows hidden files, Ctrl+Shift+N creates a new folder.
- Printing with a preview, and back and forward through history with Alt and the arrow keys.
The preview, the status bar and Enter follow the cursor rather than the first selected item — so selecting a range with Shift and the arrow keys still previews what you are pointing at.
Batch operations
Conversion (Ctrl+K) takes a selection to JPEG or PNG. For JPEG: quality from 1 to 100, chroma subsampling, and EXIF carried over — capture date, camera and orientation. For PNG: interlacing and the compression filter.
The result goes beside the original or into a folder of its own, optionally with a suffix, and the originals can be removed afterwards — to the recycle bin, so the operation is reversible without an extra confirmation. Every setting in the dialog is remembered, so the second time you only press the button.
Batch rename works on the same principle: build the pattern, see the result before committing, and keep the cursor where it was afterwards.
Photo and video editors
The photo editor opens the current picture with Ctrl+E. The video editor works on clips:
- Trimming by time
- Cropping
- A frame around the picture
- A caption
- A watermark and a logo
- Blurring an area
- Export to MP4
At a glance
- JSON
- Shown in the preview pane, formatted, with scrolling, selection and a word-wrap toggle
- Also opens
- DWG drawings (embedded preview), STL and STEP 3D models right in the preview pane, and torrents with their file list
- Viewing
- Two modes: full screen on black, or an ordinary window with a toolbar and a status bar
- Operating system
- Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit only
- Installation
- For the current user, no administrator rights needed
- Built with
- Win32, Direct2D, WIC and Media Foundation; ffmpeg for video
- Size
- Installer about 57 MB
- Components
- ELX-PhotoViewer.exe (about 900 KB), ELX-PhotoEditor.exe (about 370 KB), ELX-VideoEditor.exe (about 420 KB), ffmpeg.exe (223 MB)
- Runtime
- None, the C runtime is linked statically
- Formats
- Everything the system imaging component reads, including animated GIF, plus SVG
- Comic books
- CBZ and CBR: the cover shows as a thumbnail and pages turn like photos in a folder
- Conversion
- JPEG and PNG, with EXIF carried over
- Video export
- GIF to H.264 MP4 through Windows itself; MP4 from the video editor through ffmpeg
- Interface language
- Russian