People really do shoot scores of photographs on their phones.

In an age when smartphones have enough internal memory to store several days worth of high definition pictures, that's really not an unusual situation anymore. These basic features are welcome, especially when the program is expected to keep track of thousands of images. There is, however, a search bar and the choice to sort the photos by name or date. For one thing, there's no editing panel included, no advanced settings, and no file conversion menu. To achieve this level of workflow fluidity, the software does make sacrifices. There's no doubt about it, 123 Photo Viewer is remarkably fast. If you have snapshots stored elsewhere on your hard drive, simply use the plus symbol again to add that directory as well. Generally speaking, the UsersPictures directory contains all of your Windows computer's default photos folders. Not quite finished yet, you'll need to click on the plus symbol to select either a OneDrive folder or a locally stored pictures folder.

Within a few seconds, the install text is swapped out for 'Launch.' Open 123 Photo Viewer from here, or navigate over to the Windows Start Menu to find its metro-style launch icon. A single click over the big blue 'Install' button starts the install operation. It's from here that the photo browsing App is found. That's the shopping bag icon sitting on your Windows taskbar.

Instead of browsing a website and downloading an installation package, you'll want to open up the Microsoft Store. While other programs in this category tend to use this level of interface simplicity as a springboard towards more advanced features, 123 Photo Viewer is content to rely on its basic features and photo loading speed. Its no-nonsense display opens up with a bold 'Add Folder' line of text, with a second 'Add OneDrive Folder' entry proving that the lightweight photo viewer is also able to monitor your cloud-stored images, too.

Although its interface is rather spartan, 123 Photo Viewer is a surprisingly capable photo browser.

123 image viewer