How to change Windows Photo Viewer slideshow interval

Even though there are tons of image viewers available for Windows, I like the one that is bundled along with it – the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. It might not have shiny toolbars nor have any fancy slideshow effects, but it’s so easy to use that it often negates any lack in features it suffers from.

However, the absence of a straightforward means of changing the slideshow duration is a bit frustrating. The default duration between changing of pictures, when viewing a slideshow on Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, is 5 seconds. If you want to change this time, you will have to fiddle the Windows Registry.

To change the slideshow time interval follow these steps:

1. Click Start>Run, type regedit and hit enter.
2. Navigate to the following location
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
   Explorer\ShellImageView
3. Create a new DWORD, by right clicking and selecting New DWORD, and name it Timeout
4. Right click on this newly created DWORD and select Modify, and give a value you desire for the slideshow interval in millisecond.
5. Select the base as Decimal and exit the registry editor.

Restart your computer to let the change take effect.