In XP, the Picture and Fax viewer allowed the viewing of animated .gif files. It seems that the Photo Viewer in 7 does not. Is this deliberate, or is there some secret settings that I can change to view animated .gif files in Photo Viewer, or is this an effort by MS to make people by extra software?

GIF files will only play when Internet Explorer is set as the default program to open them instead. They can only be viewed in Windows Photo Viewer. Reference: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/10976-making-windows-photo-viewer-play-gifs.html This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.