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FastStone Image Viewer: A Great Image Viewer for Windows

FastStone Image ViewerWindows image viewerNAS image browsingfree image viewerSamba shared folder
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Previously, I introduced FastStone Capture, my favorite image editing (screenshot) software. Today, I'm introducing another tool developed by the same author: FastStone Image Viewer. This software is completely free for non-commercial use but only supports the Windows operating system.

Download FastStone Image Viewer

The official website provides both .exe installer versions and portable versions. Download page: https://www.faststone.org/FSIVDownload.htm

My Usage Scenarios

I regularly sync photos from my phone to my NAS (QNAP) for backup. While QNAP's built-in album software can identify and categorize images, the scanning speed is slow, and viewing images is inconvenient. I found FastStone Image Viewer to make up for the shortcomings of QTS's built-in album software. The advantage of FastStone Image Viewer lies in image viewing and editing.

To view and edit images on the NAS using FastStone Image Viewer on Windows, simply share the NAS folder via Samba and map it to Windows. For reference, see: How to Map Samba Shares as Network Drives in Windows 10. After mapping, you can view and edit images on the NAS within FastStone Image Viewer just like local files.

FastStone Image Viewer reads Windows folders (including mapped network drives) using a tree menu. After selecting a directory, it quickly displays thumbnails for preview, making it easy to find the images you want to view or edit.

FastStone Image Viewer also comes with basic image editing functions, though I don't use them much. Feel free to try them out if you're interested.

Summary

  • FastStone Image Viewer can read network-mapped drives.
  • FastStone Image Viewer can quickly generate thumbnails for specified folders, facilitating fast previews.
  • FastStone Image Viewer does not support categorization and search.

If you prefer automatic album categorization and photo recognition, you might also try Google Photos. However, there may be network issues and privacy concerns. It is generally recommended to use Google Photos in combination with local image viewers like FastStone Image Viewer.