How to have "Fit picture to frame" disabled by default when printing a picture?

Question

I use to print full page pictures a lot.

Every time the Windows Print Pictures form appears, I need to uncheck the "Fit picture to frame" all the time, and it's getting ennoying.

Is there a hack in the registry or something like that to uncheck this by default ?

Solution

As no suitable answer was given, except for a comment by @Shoeless recommending using AutoHotKey to survey eternally all dialog windows for this one and uncheck the option (not recommended for such a small problem), I detail below my own unsuccessful efforts.

1. The Photo Gallery is contained in the executable WLXPhotoGallery.exe. I used Resource Hacker to view its resources, but did not find this dialog or window as a resource. The conclusion is that it's generated by the program at runtime, so cannot be modified except by hacking the program's code.

2. I used Process Monitor to capture all registry activity of the program, but have not identified any easily identified related setting. So it does not look as if this option is controlled by a registry item.

The conclusion is that there is no way to uncheck that checkbox programmatically, except by using a big canon such as AutoHotKey.

If using AutoHotKey is not an option, you will need to use another viewer.

See the article Best Free Digital Image Viewer for better and more sophisticated image viewers/browsers than Microsoft's Photo Gallery.

Comments

[Steve]

What Windows OS do you have?

[Larry]

This is happening on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. I don't know about Vista.

[Steve]

This is a problem shared by other people, and there's no resolution on the horizon.

[Shoeless]

One could get crafty using AutoHotKey to uncheck the box when the window is displayed.... but that means you'd have to be a user of AutoHotKey (autohotkey.com)

[harrymc]

Negative comment: (1) The executable WLXPhotoGallery.exe does not contain this dialog as a resource - so as it's generated by the program at runtime it cannot be modified except by hacking the program. (2) Monitoring the registry accesses of the program doesn't point to any easily identified related setting. Conclusion: Use another viewer. See Best Free Digital Image Viewer.

[carrabino]

i love detailed answers like this ... you saved me time from digging into this ... thank you for sharing.