"windows picture and fax viewer"

hey all.... i have a prob with the image viewer in XP pro...
when i open an image it would be like BAM! and it's up... now it take anywhere from 5-10sec to bring it up... it just hangs for some seconds with "generating preview"...
is there any way i can speed it back up??

thanks,
maiof

When you attempt to open an image file, rather than simply double-clicking it, right-click it and select "Open with..."

That will bring up a window with a list of programs. Select "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" and be sure to place a check in the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" box.

Microsoft Photo Editor also opens up pictures pretty quickly for me, but the Picture and Fax Viewer is usually a little bit faster.