The Fast, Free Image Viewer for Windows

XnView is a free image viewer for Windows 11, Windows 10, macOS and Linux. It opens more than 500 image formats, browses folders of thousands of photos without slowing down, and works as a direct replacement for Windows Photo Viewer — with no adware, no spyware and no subscription. XnView MP is the modern, cross-platform edition; XnView Classic remains available for Windows.

XnView image viewer at a glance

A replacement for Windows Photo Viewer

Windows Photo Viewer was removed from the default installation of Windows 10 and is no longer offered on Windows 11, where the built-in Photos app replaced it. Many users find the replacement slower to open large images and limited in the formats it recognises.

XnView fills that gap. It starts quickly, opens the formats Windows ignores — camera RAW, HEIC, WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL, PSD, DICOM — and gives you a real file browser rather than a single-image window. Nothing is uploaded: every image stays on your machine.

How to set XnView as your default photo viewer

  1. Right-click any image file and choose Open with > Choose another app.
  2. Select XnView MP in the list.
  3. Tick Always use this app to open .jpg files, then confirm.
  4. To cover every format at once, open Settings > Apps > Default apps > XnView MP and set the file types you want.

Browse and organise large photo collections

XnView is built around a browser, not a single-image window. The thumbnail view scales to folders holding thousands of images, the filmstrip keeps the current photo large while you move through the folder, and full-screen mode fills the display with no interface in the way.

Supported image formats

XnView reads more than 500 formats natively, with no codec pack to install. The most common ones have a dedicated guide:

Image viewer for macOS and Linux

XnView MP is cross-platform: the same viewer, the same shortcuts and the same format support on Windows 10 and 11, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux, where it ships as DEB, RPM and AppImage packages. Settings and browsing habits carry over from one machine to the next.

Edit and convert without leaving the viewer

Beyond viewing, XnView resizes, rotates and crops images, adjusts brightness, contrast and gamma, applies auto levels and filters, and edits EXIF/IPTC/XMP metadata. JPEG rotation and cropping are lossless, so repeated edits never degrade the file.

For whole folders, XnConvert chains up to 80 actions — resize, convert, watermark, rename — across thousands of images at once, and XnResize handles bulk resizing on its own.

Frequently asked questions

Is XnView really a free image viewer?

Yes. XnView is free for private, educational and non-profit use, with no adware, no spyware and no subscription. A licence is required for use inside a company.

Can XnView replace Windows Photo Viewer on Windows 11?

Yes. Windows Photo Viewer is no longer offered by default on Windows 11 and 10. XnView opens the same file types and many more, and you can set it as the default photo viewer from Windows Settings > Apps > Default apps.

How do I set XnView as the default photo viewer in Windows?

Right-click any image, choose Open with > Choose another app, select XnView MP and tick "Always use this app". You can also do it for every format at once in Settings > Apps > Default apps > XnView MP.

Which image formats can XnView open?

More than 500 formats, including JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL, HEIC/HEIF, PSD, camera RAW (CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG), DICOM and PDF. Export is available to around 70 formats.

Is XnView fast with large folders?

Yes. XnView is designed to browse folders containing thousands of photos, with a thumbnail cache, filmstrip and full-screen views, so navigation stays responsive on large collections.

Does XnView work on macOS and Linux?

Yes. XnView MP runs on Windows 10 and 11, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux, where it is distributed as DEB, RPM and AppImage packages.

Can XnView view photos without installing anything?

Yes. XnView is also available as a portable ZIP archive: unpack it to a folder or a USB stick and run it without installation or administrator rights.

Download XnView