Hi!
I have all options unchecked in the "System Integration" preferences, and "Save as INI in folder XNView" selected, and still XNView folder and files are created in the local "Application Data" folder.

Is it normal to also have references to XNView written in my local "WINDOWS\Prefetch" directory?
(filenames such as "XNVIEW.EXE-1584C38F.pf" appear)

thanks
(by the way, this is under Win XP)

Paz, not sure about the INI problem (works for me), but the prefetch directory is a WinXP trick to speed up app loading and has got nothing to do with portability. Try searching "prefetch" on Google and you'll get tons of links on the subject.

All settings are stored to the ini file in the application folder but it does store a Database file in the user

Any one know how to stop this happening?

That was the user application data folder =)

Local, I have just updated the instructions to configure settings so that everything is stored in the EXE folder, so please take a look again.

The software is great, but I could't find a way to add a frame to my pictures, as mentioned in the text.

Frameker.
Double click on the image, then go to the menu
Image -> Canvas Size

I've been using this for a while, very useful.. although it supports over 400 formats, it doesn't support some of the rare/arcane, propriority formats unfortunetly.

How to select language?

Tools, Options, Interface, Language.

I had a problem with the older 1.91.2 where this software was only printing to first printer in the select printer list. It was a bug. Installed this newer version and seems like it's working correctly. XNView is Super Awesome great software! Lovin it. Can someone explain what is this "Photoshop Plugins" stuff, and how/when to use it. I'd like to learn that.

A favorite application becomes even better. Many thanks again to Pierre-emmanuel Gougelet.

My installation, excluding thumbnail cache files, amounts to a skinny 4MB -- none of the included language files, external filters, skins, web templates, ....

The "experimental" highlight/shadow tool works well to recover details lost in shadows and/or highlights, much like a "contrast mask" in Photoshop-type programs.

Forgot to mention in my prior comment.

For photo editing, I use Adobe Photoshop Elements.

For photo browsing, I use XnView -- in my experience, the most convenient and efficient photo browser available. When browsing with XnView thru a directory of photos, I use XnView to selectively pass photos to Photoshop Elements for editing.

download linked from this site doesn't run well on vista, complains of missing dll i had to re download from official website.

@Fuego: The download link above is the same link as the Zip file "Server 1" link on the official download page.

if you get the full version it includes plug ins that enabled it to read zip, rar and 7zip archive, albeit a little slow, but very cool. highly recommended image viewer.

If you want english as langauge (following andrews start up) you can add "Language=en" (no quotes, in the start section in xnview.ini )

XnView 1.94.1 is out, by the way if you get the full version you can save space by deleting the language files. optional is deleting media detector and any plugins you will not be using from inside the addons and plugins directory.

xnview full is 30 megs uncompressed, roughly 20 megs if you delete the language files and you can also upx compress some of the files, i use upx shell (by ion-tek) the end results were just 14.1 MB in size.

8,26 Mb. using ThinApp (Thinstall) ;-)

One really nice feature is the ability to create a standalone EXE slideshow for your pictures. It made a beautiful thumbnail viewer of 70-odd MB of pictures in 2M for me.

I just downloaded the newest version, 1.95.3 and was wondering if I was the only one who got an error message saying that NCSEcw.dll doesn't exist.

Just a response to my problem.

1) the program still opens and runs (but the error message repeats when you rerun it.
2) When I coppied my .ini from my old copy, it doesn't produce the error.

I had the same problem.
Use http://87.230.13.154/XnView-win.zip (fro the XnView page)
instead of XnView-win-full.zip which is downloaded from this page, and it should work for you too.

@Amy: The NCSEcw.dll error is occurring because the ECW (Ermapper format) plugin is missing necessary files. To fix this problem, install the full version ZIP package as normal. Then, go to the plugins download page, http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enplugins.html , and download the ECW format plugin package. Unzip the package contents into the "Plugins" directory below the XnView directory. No more errors. :)

Alternatively, if you don't need to view ECW files, just delete Xecw.dll from the plugins directory.

XnView has been stealing/cloning features and whole dialogs from IrfanView, for 10+ years

@QWERT: I think that is a lie from irfan skiljan, and so what? XnView is still better!

qwert, what are you complaining about, at least it's free. ps your an a-hole.

FastStone Image Viewer is better than this amateurish-looking app. FastStone's full screen info and edit tools alone make it a far better program. Whatever. Everyone has a favorite.

BoxedApp Packer - is much better than Thinapp: http://boxedapp.com/

I have tried the popular freeware image viewers -- FastStone Image Viewer (FSIV), IrfanView, and Xnview. Xnveiew is clearly superior for me. I have more than 14,000 digital photos. I use Photoshop for editing and Xnview for browsing and printing.

IrfanView makes a thumbnail cache of a directory on the fly, writing to memory and not to disk. At every program launch or directory change, IrfanView recreates the directory thumbnail cache. This is much too time consuming, and makes IrfanView unsuitable for me.

FSIV and Xnview save thumbnail caches to disk. FSIV offers 5 thumbnail sizes, none suitable for me. Xnview offers wide user latitude. My Xnview thumbnails are big, beautiful 240 pixels x 240 pixels. My thumbnail cache is consequently a whopping 230 MB. FSIV requires thumbnail cache files reside in the FSIV directory. Conveniently, Xnview permits the location to be user specified. My location is a dedicated directory on my data partition. When I periodically back up my data partition to my external USB disk, the Xnview thumbnail cache is automatically backed up.

FSIV does not offer tabbed viewing of multiple open files. Xnview does.

FSIV offers minimal editing function. Xnview offers a wide variety, even a decent shadow & highlight correction. FSIV does not support third party Photoshop ".8bf" filters. Xnview does, if the filter is not restricted to Photoshop and if the filter does not require multiple layers.

For these and other reasons, Xnview is my choice.

XnView v 9.1.7.8 full crashes opening images on 64 bit windows 7 ...working on apng.. that could be the problem? any ideas..tried reinstalling.. HELP!

Meant:

XnView V1.97.8 need it to work on APNG !!

RE: Andrew Lee: Local, I have just updated the instructions to configure settings so that everything is stored in the EXE folder, so please take a look again.

I cannot find the instructions to configure settings. Please give specific instructions to find the instructions.

thanks,
zeke

I don't think "Dependencies: MSVCR71.DLL MSVCP71.DLL" needs inclusion here anymore as this works out of the box on a virgin Windows 2000 install (which does not include those files). I didn't want to remove it on the off chance that it applies to Windows 9x and someone still cares about that.

I've been using XnView for a long time and its feature set is outstanding; it's an indispensable media viewer and manager.
Lately, it has been getting on my nerves and I've been starting to view it as spyware/malware !!

If I have a .URL file in the same folder as an image, then XnView will try connecting to the internet. If I remove the .URL file from the folder, then XnView won't do this.
I've looked all over the App Preferences and at XnView support forum but I can not find a solution. There must be a setting somewhere that controls this behaviour.

I'm at my wits end, and I'm very close to ending my relationship with this software. In my opinion, the developer of XnView has made a BIG mistake not clearly explaining to the user the exact steps to control this behaviour. Some of those URL's XnView is trying to connect to are not even related to the actual path in the .URL file !!

Can somebody with an intimate knowledge of the settings please help. Thankyou.

@derty2, in XnView's settings menu, under Browser/Preview, do you happen to have the following option enabled:

"Auto play for Audio/Video"

If it is checked, every time you open a folder and XnView builds its cache, it is likely to follow the link in your .URL file. Basically, it opens everything it finds in the folder during the caching process. Even if it isn't caching the .URL file, if you point at it with the option enabled, it possibly attempts to open it.

Also, you might want to look in the Browser menu under File List, and make sure that "All Other Files" has nothing checked.
I just tried this with a .URL file myself while posting this response, and even though Auto Play didn't attempt to open the URL, if I selected the file and double-clicked it, XnView did open the site and I found a new tab in the background. ;)