By default, Windows XP opens all picture files (gif,jpg,…) with the included Windows Picture and Fax Viewer no matter what other picture viewers you have installed.Well the Picture and Fax Viewer, is one of these programs which can cause problems if removed incorrectly. It can be disabled safely as follows:

Before working o this please note you must be familiar with Regedit or some knowledge is must.

Start-> Run-> type regedit and click [OK]

Go to :  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/ SystemFileAssociations/ image/ ShellEx/ ContextMenuHandlers
then delete the Folder ShellImagePreview under ContextMenuHandlers

Note: If you want to restore the Picture and Fax Viewer :

Create the ShellImagePreview folder and create the String Value (Default)
Assign it the value {e84fda7c-1d6a-45f6-b725-cb260c236066}

NOTE: This tweak doesn’t uninstall the program. It removes the association and therefore it cannot be run.

To disable the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, unregister shimgvw.dll.

This can be done from command prompt: type regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll