Question: Is Picture Viewer Pro fully compatible with Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit versions)?

Answer: Yes! It will run happily on ANY version of Windows 7.

It was developed to run best on Vista but for the past year, we have been testing and making changes so that it performed brilliantly on all the Windows 7 Betas...

Now that Windows 7 is final and released, we did further testing and all is well!

Question: When will Version 3.0 be available and what about lifetime licenses with this version?

Answer: It will be made available as soon as it is ready! The news page will give current details.
As promised, all lifetime licenses will be honoured - although new keys will be needed.

Question: A file I am viewing is smaller than my screen. How can I expand or blow it up?

Answer: As long as you are in fullscreen mode, just right click with the mouse, or press the L key.

Question: I have a widescreen LCD and am viewing pictures on it - is there any way to force them to fit so my whole screen is full?

Answer: Yes, in fullscreen mode, press they A key to turn on Manual (force to fit) aspect ratio. Note that this may fill your screen but its not showing the file in its true aspect ratio. Laptop screens really need 16:10 format pictures!

Question: I have Windows 98/Windows ME/Windows 2000. Can I run Picture Viewer Pro?

Answer: Although the program was written to work best on Windows 7, Vista and XP, it will run on older Operating Systems, provided you have updated them with the required .Net Framework, detailed in the Support section.
You may also need to install the "Microsoft Windows Installer", depending on how up to date your Windows updates are!

Question: Sometimes when I double click on a file, I get a message up that Picture Viewer Pro is already running. This can be annoying.

Answer: Picture Viewer Pro only allows one copy to be run at a time to avoid confusion.
You already have a copy running in the background. Either shut it down after you have finished using it (Esc key), or press H to hide it. You can then restore it by double clicking on the camera icon next to the system clock at the bottom right.
Additionally, instead of double clicking on the new file - try dragging and dropping it onto Picture Viewer Pro instead!

Question: I have multiple computers. Do I need multiple licenses?

Answer: Not if you are a single end user. This use is permitted.  Otherwise please contact us for site license details.

Question: What happens when I register?

Answer: You get sent out your individual license manager program. Keep it safe. This allows you to apply and remove your license from individual computers. Please do not "leak" your lifetime license or else it may stop working on future updates to the program. This right is reserved.

Question: What is the difference between the registered version and the trial version?

Answer: Registering supports future versions. These will always be free! Registering turns off the nag screen (and the delay) and gives access to currently disabled advanced features.

Question: What happens if I decide to just run the free trial version?

Answer: Nothing, other than you have to put up with the disabled functionality! It will never time-out.
All the basic viewing modes and the RAWSync feature are fully working in the trial version. Advanced features like the file selection, info and processing options are not.

Question: I noticed after I installed Picture Viewer Pro that it took over the file associations for JPG, BMP, TIF and PNG files. I tried the trial version but now want to uninstall - how do I get the associations back to how they were before?

Answer: This is by design so that the small and fast-loading Picture Viewer Pro can load up your files from Windows Explorer quickly and conveniently when you double click on a supported file. If you uninstall it, the defaults in use on your computer before will be restored! You can individually set which program on your computer opens up with each filetype by right clicking the file and choosing "Open With".

Question: I have Outlook installed but the email features do not seem to be working properly?
 
Answer: Your system probably needs the Microsoft Office Outlook PIA's installed. These are normally installed with Office, but are available anyway as a free download from Microsoft. See the support page for further details on this.

Question: Do you only support Outlook for the email features?

Answer: Yes. This is due to the use of the Office Outlook Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA's) for automation.

Question: I have Microsoft .Net v1.x installed. Do I need to install v2.0 as well?

Answer: Yes. Picture Viewer Pro uses exclusive Microsoft .Net v2.0 features and as this is a different product than version 1.x, it needs to be installed as well.

Question: How do I find out if I have Microsoft .Net v2.0 installed on my computer.

Answer: Try and install Picture Viewer Pro and it will tell you! It will provide links to Microsoft so that you can download it, if required. If you have an ATI graphics card and you have the latest Catalyst drivers installed, then you can be sure you are running .Net v2.0!

Question: I am viewing files in a folder. There are different mixed file types in there. Why does Picture Viewer Pro "lock" to a certain file type eg. "JPG" files and ignore the rest?

Answer: This is actually a design feature. It locks to the one file type so that the RAWSync feature is always available to photographers sorting out their RAW files. Most people will have JPG+RAW files together but the program will handle things like TIFF+RAW files properly as a result of this locking feature.
Press "T" to get a folder report and it will list the other file types in the folder. You can then press "O" and open the different file type.

Question: Where can I download the user manual for Picture Viewer Pro?

Answer: It's actually built in as the program's help file. Press F1 in windowed mode or go to the Help menu - 'Using Picture Viewer Pro' option.. Alternatively, if you just want to read it on its own, you can download the file here.

Question: What is the history of Picture Viewer Pro? What is new in the new version?

Answer:  Over time, all programs evolve and grow. There have now been three name changes! Picture Viewer Pro was built from RawSync Viewer Pro (Build 125). RAWSync Viewer Pro in turn, was built from RAWSync Viewer 1.4 (Build 42). RAWSync Viewer was made publicly available (and free at the time) as version 1.0
If you count build numbers, there have actually been 215 versions already!
The complete release history can be read here.


More FAQ's will be added as required.