ImageGlass 9.5.0.515 landed on May 14, 2026, bringing a practical maintenance update to Windows 10 and Windows 11 users. This stable release adds DPI metadata display, sibling-folder navigation, an upgrade to Magick.NET 14.13.0, and two targeted bug fixes that address long-standing annoyances. For a free, open-source image viewer that prides itself on simplicity, these enhancements directly improve daily workflows for photographers, designers, and anyone who handles large image collections.

DPI Metadata Now Visible at a Glance

The standout addition is DPI tag support in the image information panel. Until now, quick access to dots-per-inch data required opening file properties or switching to separate metadata tools. With version 9.5.0.515, the main window’s status bar and the detailed Info dialog both surface the horizontal and vertical DPI values stored in JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and WebP headers. Users can finally verify print-ready resolution without breaking their flow.

This matters especially for prepress professionals and stock-photo reviewers who must confirm minimum 300 DPI standards before proceeding. The DPI readout appears next to the existing dimensions and file-size summaries, color-coded as green for ≥300 DPI, yellow for 150–299 DPI, and red for below 150 DPI. That visual cue saves time during bulk reviews. The feature also respects the physical unit stored in the file—most commonly inches—and correctly converts centimeters when found in EXIF data. A new small info icon provides a one-click copy of the DPI values, further streamlining documentation tasks.

Sibling-Folder Navigation Cuts Browsing Friction

ImageGlass has long offered keyboard-driven navigation with arrow keys, but moving between folders required a return to the file-system tree or drag-and-drop. The 9.5.0.515 update introduces sibling-folder switching via Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right arrow. When viewing images inside a folder, the shortcut jumps to the next or previous directory on the same level—without opening the file browser.

Imagine you’re culling a day’s shoot organized in date-named subfolders like "2026-05-14_Morning" and "2026-05-14_Afternoon." Previously, you’d finish the first folder’s images, then manually double-click the next folder. Now a single chord takes you straight into the adjacent sibling directory, with the image list automatically loaded. The navigation respects Windows File Explorer’s sort order, and an optional breadcrumb bar appears briefly to confirm the new path. Power users who browse large photo libraries will find this a significant time-saver.

The feature can be disabled from Settings > General > Navigation if it clashes with custom AutoHotkey scripts. It also plays nicely with the existing Last-Remembered Folder option, resuming at the image that was last viewed when a folder was closed—eliminating the need to scroll back to where you left off.

Magick.NET 14.13.0 Boosts Performance and Format Support

Under the hood, the image-processing engine jumps to Magick.NET 14.13.0. This library, the .NET wrapper around ImageMagick, brings several internal improvements. Raw conversion gains speed for CR3 (Canon Raw v3) and HEIF/HEIC files, with observable load-time reductions of roughly 12–18% on a typical NVMe SSD. The update also patches a small color-profile glitch that caused over-saturated reds when opening certain sRGB-tagged PNGs exported from Adobe Lightroom.

Additionally, Magick.NET 14.13.0 adds experimental read support for JPEG XL (JXL) lossless compressed streams. While not yet exposed in ImageGlass’s default file associations, users can manually enable it via the Custom File Types list. This hints at a future where the viewer may fully embrace next-gen image codecs well before Microsoft’s own Photos app catches up.

Two Fixes That Matter Most

1. Crash on Corrupted GIFs Eliminated

A stubborn bug has plagued users since version 9.4 when opening truncated or malformed GIF files. Instead of showing a graceful error, the app would terminate unexpectedly. The root cause was an unchecked buffer in the animation decoder’s LZW decompression routine. Build 9.5.0.515 adds bounds-checking and falls back to displaying the first valid frame with an unobtrusive warning in the title bar: "Corrupted GIF – displaying partial frames." Testers report that a batch of 500 deliberately corrupted GIFs no longer triggers a single crash, and even live-damaged files from partially downloaded archives are handled cleanly.

2. High-DPI Zoom Reset Fixed

On 4K and 5K displays with scaling set above 150%, the "Fit to window" and "Reset zoom" commands could get stuck at 100% zoom instead of adapting to the screen’s effective resolution. This made images appear pixelated when they were supposed to be crisp. The fix ensures that the zoom-to-fit algorithm now re-samples the image using the correct device-pixel ratio. Affected users can delete their existing imagication.xml configuration file or simply toggle the scaling mode once to trigger the corrected calculation. The fix also benefits multi-monitor setups where each display has a different scaling factor, properly re-adjusting when the window is moved between screens.

Other Notable Tweaks

Several smaller refinements round out the release:

  • Dark Mode Polish: The thumbnail panel now respects Windows system-accent colors more consistently, eliminating the white flash when switching between light and dark modes.
  • Context Menu Speed: Right-click menu rendering on folders with more than 10,000 images has been optimized by pre-caching the image dimensions database. The menu appears in under 200 milliseconds where it previously took over a second.
  • Touchscreen Improvements: Pinch-to-zoom now uses a predictive smoothing algorithm based on the last three touch events, reducing jitter during fine adjustments. The on-screen navigation buttons (next/previous) enlarge slightly when touch input is detected, making them easier to hit without a stylus.
  • Localization Updates: The French, German, and Japanese translations have been refined, with corrected shortcuts for the DPI and sibling-navigation features.

Installing ImageGlass 9.5.0.515

The update is delivered through three channels:

  • Microsoft Store: Version 9.5.0.515 is rolling out gradually to Windows 10 (version 1809 and later) and Windows 11. Users with auto-update enabled will receive it by May 16, 2026. The Store package is code-signed for enhanced security.
  • Classic MSI Installer: Available from the official ImageGlass website (imageglass.org) or the GitHub Releases page. The MSI installer (28.4 MB) supports silent installation via command line: msiexec /i ImageGlass_9.5.0.515_x64.msi /quiet. SHA256 checksum: e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855.
  • Portable ZIP: A standalone 32.1 MB ZIP archive runs without installation, suitable for USB drives and locked-down corporate environments. Extract and launch ImageGlass.exe directly.

All editions require .NET 8.0 Desktop Runtime, which is bundled in the MSI and Store versions but must be installed separately for the portable build. The viewer remains compatible with Windows 10 SAC releases (20H2 and newer) and Windows 11 23H2 through the current 26H2 insider previews.

Community Reaction and Known Issues

Early feedback on the ImageGlass GitHub Discussions board has been overwhelmingly positive. The DPI tag feature garnered immediate praise from print professionals, while sibling-folder navigation received 47 thumbs-up emojis within the first 24 hours. One user noted, "The sibling navigation alone will save me 15 minutes a day when sorting event photos."

A few known issues remain in this build:
- Sibling navigation does not traverse into OneDrive placeholder folders that haven’t been downloaded; it skips them silently. A fix is planned for 9.5.1.
- On very rare occasions, the DPI tag may misread Exif resolution units stored as "cm" in older TIFF files generated by Photoshop CS2. The team recommends updating metadata with a modern tool if this occurs.
- The JPEG XL experimental support triggers a false-positive antivirus alert in certain third-party security suites due to the new codec driver. Adding an exclusion for the ImageGlass process folder resolves it.

What’s Next for ImageGlass?

Looking ahead, the 9.6 milestone track hints at deeper integration with the Windows context menu—possibly allowing right-click image conversion to AVIF and WebP directly from File Explorer. The developer also mentioned exploring AI-assisted tagging using the on-device Windows Copilot Runtime, though that remains speculative. For now, version 9.5.0.515 stands as a polished, reliable update that reinforces ImageGlass’s position as a top-tier image viewer for Windows enthusiasts.

To download the latest release, visit the official ImageGlass website or check for updates within the app via Help > Check for Update. As always, the source code is available on GitHub under the Apache License 2.0.