FlyPhotos

Fly Photos

Fly Photos is one of the fastest photo viewers for Windows, designed as a modern replacement for the now-discontinued Google Picasa Photo Viewer.
Built with WinUI 3, WinRT, and Win2D, it delivers smooth animations, instant startup, and an efficient viewing experience.

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Watch Fly Photos in action:

Download

• Purchasing Fly Photos from the Microsoft Store is the best way to support the ongoing development of the project.
• You can also support via a donation at . After donating, please email [email protected], and I will send you a Store promo code

Difference Between GitHub Release and Store Release

	Microsoft Store	GitHub MSI
Price	Paid	Free
Updates	✅ Seamless auto-updates	❌ User-managed
Security	✅ Signed and certified by Microsoft	❌ Not signed

Both builds are the same app, with the same features.

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Installation

• Option 1 : Install from Microsoft Store
• Option 2 : Download the MSI for your architecture (x64 or ARM64) from the GitHub Releases Page

Requires Windows 10 version 1809 (build 17763) or newer, on x64 or ARM64.

Getting Started

Once installed, you can open photos in three ways:

1. Context Menu (Right-Click)

Right-click an image, select "Open with", and choose Fly Photos from the list.

2. Standalone Mode

Launch Fly Photos directly from the Start menu, then use the file picker to browse to a folder or image.

3. Set as Default App

To open images with Fly Photos automatically when you double-click them:

1. Right-click an image file (e.g., a .jpg).
2. Select "Open With" → "Choose Another App", pick FlyPhotos, and click Always.
3. Repeat for other file types (PNG, WEBP, etc.) as needed.

Tip: to change many types at once, go to Windows Settings → Apps → Default apps → FlyPhotos and set the file types there.

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✨ Features

• Fast and lightweight

  • Instant startup with a Native AOT build.
  • In-memory and disk caching for smooth navigation even in folders with thousands of photos.
  • Fly-through mode - press and hold ← / → and glide through a large folder with no loading spinners.
  • Tight Explorer integration. Follows Explorer's sort order and filtering (Recent, Search, etc.).

• Image format support

  • Everything the Windows Imaging Component handles (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, camera RAW, and any format you have a WIC codec installed for).
  • Extended support for PSD (with transparency), HEIC/HEIF, AVIF, SVG, GIF, APNG, animated WebP, and DDS.
  • Camera RAW with a configurable decoder order - Rawler (fastest), WIC (system codecs), or ImageMagick (best compatibility) - plus an option to decode the real RAW data instead of the embedded JPEG.
  • Multi-page TIFF and multi-frame ICO, with page-by-page navigation.

• Viewing experience

  • Transparent background like Picasa Photo Viewer, or Mica, Acrylic, Frozen Glass, or a solid colour of your choice.
  • Light, dark, or system theme.
  • Smooth pan, zoom, and rotation, with optional sticky zoom stops.
  • Thumbnail strip with adjustable size, selection colour, and optional animation.
  • Photo info panel with EXIF and camera metadata.
  • Choose whether pan/zoom/rotation resets, is remembered per photo, or carries over during navigation.
  • Multi-monitor support (remembers the last used monitor); starts maximized, full screen, or in its previous window state.

• Controls

  • Fully customizable keyboard shortcuts - rebind almost any command in Settings → Keyboard.
  • Configurable mouse - wheel, wheel click, right-click-and-hold, and the back/forward buttons are all set in Settings → Mouse.
  • Precision touchpad - two-finger swipe to navigate and pinch to zoom.
  • Right-click opens the real Windows Explorer context menu.

• Localized

  • Available in 20 languages, including right-to-left layout for Arabic.

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Usage

⌨️ Keyboard

These are the defaults. Every command below except Esc and Del can be rebound in Settings → Keyboard, and any shortcut you change is stored per user, so future releases keep your bindings.

Group	Command	Default
Navigation	Next / previous photo	→ / ←
	Fly-through mode	Hold → / ←
	First / last photo	Home / End
	Next / previous page (multi-page TIFF, multi-frame ICO)	Alt + → / ←
Zoom and pan	Zoom in / out	↑ / ↓, or Ctrl + + / −
	Step zoom (fit → 100% → 400%)	Page Up / Page Down
	Actual size (1:1)	A
	Fit to window	F
	Pan	Ctrl + arrow keys
Rotate	Rotate left / right	L / R
View	Full screen	F11
	Maximize or restore	Enter
	Photo info panel	I
	Close FlyPhotos	Esc
File	Copy photo	Ctrl + C
	Delete photo	Del
	Rename photo	F2
	Print photo	P
	Share photo	S
	Open file location	W
	File properties	Alt + Enter
	File details	D
	More actions menu	M
Open with	Open in external app 1–4	Ctrl + 1–4
	Open-with panel	E

Mouse

Rows marked configurable can be changed in Settings → Mouse; the values shown are the defaults.

Action	Default behaviour
Wheel scroll	Zoom in / out	configurable (zoom or navigate)
Ctrl + wheel	Always zooms	fixed
Alt + wheel	Always navigates	fixed
Tilt wheel left / right	Navigate photos	fixed
Wheel click	Toggle full screen	configurable
Back / forward buttons	Navigate photos	configurable (navigate or step zoom)
Left click + drag on photo	Pan the photo	fixed
Ctrl + drag	Move the window	fixed
Left click outside the photo	Restore the window	configurable
Double click on photo	Actual size ↔ fit to window	fixed
Double click outside the photo	Maximize the window	follows the click-outside setting
Right click	Windows Explorer context menu	fixed
Right click + hold	Zoom in	configurable
Wheel over the thumbnail strip	Navigate photos	fixed
Wheel over the on-screen rotate button	Rotate the photo	fixed

Precision touchpad

Action	Gesture
Navigate photos	Two-finger swipe left / right
Zoom or navigate	Two-finger swipe up / down (follows the wheel setting)
Zoom in / out	Pinch open / close

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Known Limitations

• SVG rendering is capped at 2000 px on the longest side.
• HDR photos are displayed tone-mapped to SDR; true HDR output is not implemented yet.
• Very large images (roughly >16384 px) may not display on all hardware, due to DirectX texture size limits.
• Multiple instances is still beta: extra instances only show the selected image, with no navigation, delete, or settings.

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Feedback

• Issues and feature requests: GitHub Issues
• Feedback: [email protected]

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Compatibility Note

Older 1.x versions were based on WPF and remain available only for Windows 7/8, but are no longer updated.