"Offering free computer help, hints, and tips to the Internet populace." Now with over 3,820 tips!

IrfanView

Keep the ESC Key from Automatically Closing IrfanView

SUMMARY: Perform this tweak to stop accidentally closing IrfanView when pressing the ESC key.

By default, when you press the Esc key while running IrfanView, the program automatically exits.

While many people like this behavior, others do not normally associate pressing Esc with immediately closing applications. This can be especially annoying if you have modified a photo, such as by applying an effect or cropping the image, and you have not yet saved the modifications as a new file. However, you can change this behavior whereby pressing Esc shows a dialog box asking if you really want to close IrfanView:

1. From IrfanView, choose "Options" - "Properties".

2. When the "Properties/Settings" dialog box appears, make sure "Start / Exit options" is selected.

3. Underneath "Exit options", check "Warning on ESC program exit".

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

This tip was written for IrfanView 4.25 on a Windows XP system. Features, information, and screenshots for other versions and operating systems may differ.