Disable or uninstall Instant Viewer

[dlk]

Instant Viewer persists in opening images that are not associated with PSPX3 & then will not close - requires Task Manager.

[LeviFiction]

Go into your control panel (Start Menu- control Panel) and select the option for setting the default programs. And change the default program for opening all of the files you don't want Instant Viewer to open. It's a bit annoying but that's what I did and I don't regret it in the least.

Other than that, I don't know of any way to uninstall it. Just change what files it can open.

If you click on the help button you'll see that Corel's own help files suggest something similar. Just a little different method for doing the same thing.

Changing the Default Photo-Viewing Program

When you install Corel PaintShop Photo Pro, Corel Instant Viewer becomes the default program for viewing photos. You can change the default program at any time. For example you can set Corel PaintShop Photo Pro as your default viewer.

To change the default photo-viewing program

1 Right-click any photo on your computer.
2 From the context menu, choose Open With > Choose default program.
3 Choose one of the recommended programs, or click the Browse button to find other programs.
4 Enable the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box.
5 Click OK.

Next time you double-click a photo in Windows Explorer, the photo will open in the default program.

[dlk]

Yep, know about that. The problem is other programs were already assigned those extensions until Viewer usurped them. And what about the "won't close"? Really tired of misbehaving programming. Don't remember anything like this from JASC.

[LeviFiction]

I don't know why it won't close. I don't experience that issue at all so I can't test it. It could be waiting for something. Of course you won't have to worry about that if you change the default programs back to how you originally had them set up.

But are you saying that you can't replace Instant Viewer as the default program? Or that you don't understand why it did it without asking you? Because these are two different issues and I'm assuming the latter.

Essentially Corel purposely defaulted the viewer to their Instant Viewer (and wouldn't you know it, just when I really liked the Windows Previewer) so we have to annoyingly reset it if we want our previewer back.

That's all there is to it. So unless the problem is greater than corel forcing their instant viewer on you the only advise I can give is change the default program back manually.

Has anyone complained about this to Corel?

[WarningU2]

I resolved this with Doug Knox's xp file assoc bat fix from http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_easy_file.htm. Download the bat file and run and it will correct this issue. Did for me anyway.

Damn annoying that Instant viewer is installed without an option to disable this behavior.

If you don't want to go to that extreme try specific file types i.e. gif and jpg etc from http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

[coffent]

Thanks for the link, which I followed. I tried Control Panel as suggested by LeviFiction, but - strangely - neither Microsoft Office nor any Corel program is listed under available programs. I had been following exactly the 5-step Corel instructions as noted also by LeviFiction. The problem comes with the last statement there, "Next time you double-click a photo in Windows Explorer, the photo will open in the default program." It doesn't - it still opens with Corel Instant Viewer.

I also followed WarningU2's link to Doug Knox's fix. However it was written for Windows XP and I didn't want to risk trying it on my Windows 7 system.

However, I did finally succeed in banishing Corel Instant Viewer. What worked for me was to go to Control Panel and select not "Set your default programs" as LeviFiction suggested but rather "Associate a file type or protocol with a program". There I found that .gif* files (whatever that means) were associated with Microsoft Office 2010, but that .gif files were still associated with Corel Instant Viewer! I changed the latter to Microsoft Office 2010, and now (finally) it seems to have worked.

I completely agree with dlk's comment in your link re "misbehaving programs". Some amplification: Until recently, I'd been using a 1997 graphics program called Micrografx Designer, part of a Micrografx Graphics Suite which included Picture Publisher. I was reluctant to leave it as I'd mastered its learning curve. One of the reasons for finally abandoning it was that Picture Publisher persisted in making itself the default viewer for graphics files such as gif. According to Wikipedia, "Micrografx was acquired by Corel in 2001 and the Micrografx graphics line was integrated into the Corel portfolio."

Apparently one of the features Corel integrated was this penchant for making itself the default viewer for graphics files without the user's knowledge or consent, and then making it difficult to change. In 12 years it appears they haven't altered their approach.