I did a bit of research to find out why Windows 7 does not support animated GIFs in the photo viewer natively.
People have suggested various third-party programs (AKA is not a built-in Windows window viewer) to solve this drawback. But since the photo viewer uses WIC ( the Windows Imaging component ) to decode images, this system can be used to add support for almost any format. I guess this means that I could make a replacement GIF codec to replace the built-in, but before I do that, I need to know something.
So, what I'm asking is, is the reason the photo viewer doesn't support animated gifs is because WIC only supports still images? Or does WPV not support encoding in animated formats, but can WIC codecs support them? If this is one of these reasons, I think I have no reason to start this project (creating a WIC codec for animated GIF files).
... or is Microsoft seriously not bypassing to add support?
PS: A program called FastPictureViewer supports animated gifs in the photo viewer, but you can only "view individual frames in animated GIFs". Hint regarding limitations of this platform (WIC) or limitations of WPV?
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