how to use this with microsoft photos app?

[megapro17]

it can open jxl files only if i rename them to jpg. But it's impossible to assign .jxl to microsoft photos, only to old windows photo viewer. There is no jxl option in file associations

[saschanaz]

There's no third party way to support Photos app, because Microsoft does not provide a public API for that. Only Microsoft can create an extension for now.

[megapro17]

Photos app can use wic api, if you add .jxl file description into registry, photos can understand these files, i see some registry keys here, but i don't understand how https://github.com/mirillis/jpegxl-wic/blob/main/installator_setup.iss

[saschanaz]

The Mirillis one supports Photos? TIL, I can take a look in that case.

[megapro17]

yes, it says that in readme. thanks in advance

[saschanaz]

So I tried installing it, but it doesn't seem to support Photos. I can see no behavior difference from my one, and Photos still does not accept .jxl as-is.

[Razor54672]

I edited the registry of .jxl key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and added the first two binary values from .jpeg key to .jxl.
This enabled the option to select Microsoft Photos app when using Open With drop down menu (not visible before the registry edit).
However, even after associating the file type, when opened with the Photos app, it just says "There is nothing to show here".

• Does that mean WIC is not supported by this app?

[saschanaz]

You mean AppX43hnxtbyyps62jhe9sqpdzxn1790zetc? That does add Photos but somehow it just crash without showing anything. And the .jpg file renaming way actually does not decode the file, it actually just loads the thumbnail cache without loading the decoder.

[Razor54672]

• Yup, that one and the one above it.
• That explains why it was blurry when I zoomed in on it. (when using renaming to jpg method)

[megapro17]

hmm, seems like i was wrong... I don't know why it's written like this in mirillis repo

[eddiezato]

There seem to be restrictions that prevent Photos from using third-party wic codecs:

When running in an AppContainer process, which includes all Windows Store apps, WIC will only use Windows-provided components, regardless of whether additional components are installed on the system. App that are not running in AppContainer are not affected.

[itsTyrion]

I'm doing what I have been doing for over a decade: Use IrfanView.
JXL files can be opened reliably, lossy and lossless ones, and as fast as possible (multithreaded decode works out of box).
With just 56 MB including all plugins, it doesn't really bloat your PC either.

Just don't make it the default during installations, that's bugged on Win 10/11 for me, do it afterwards when opening files

[saschanaz]

Of course it works on non-WinRT app. That's off topic.