• Fixed the 100% usage issue
• Fixed tag confirmation for multiple tags
• Able to sort by number of views, also shows the combined views for directories (including their subdirectories etc.)
• New added: search type, e.g. added:today search files that were added to the database today.
• Should only save image locations if images were moved

• Updated to the latest version of libiptc, this fixes IPTC compatibility problems with Picasa and other software with faulty IPTC support (Picasa would sometimes skip IPTC data completely even if it was valid). Yes, you heard that Google fanboys.
• IPTC data editing. Select images and press F9 (I didn’t have the time to draw an icon). Contact me if you need more fields in the editing dialog, I have no idea which fields are used the most.
• You can enable IPTC keyword synchronizing in the configuration. This will modify the IPTC keywords every time you add or remove a tag for an image. This is experimental but seems to work OK.

• Now includes a configuration tweaking tool. Some options are not as exposed as the more common ones, changing them is somewhat similar to using regedit. See the shortcut in Start menu.
• You can now tell Viewer2 not to stretch or shrink images to fit on screen.
• When viewing images, the next and previous images are preloaded for instant switch.
• Browsing directories is now quite usable, directories are shown with a yellow border around a preview of the first image in that directory (or a directory icon if no images are found). Use the config tool to enable this.

Here’s the new Viewer2 version:

• More information in the hover info box.
• Zooming in now also moves towards the mouse cursor. Set the option NavigateWhileZooming to zero if you don’t like this.
• You can enlarge the areas that open the menu and the tag and file lists with HotSpotSize. A value of 16 would make the zone extend 16 pixels. This is useful if you have multiple screens that makes the mouse not stop on the edge of the screen. The default is 1 which means the zone effectively is just the edge of the screen.
• When the mouse hovers over the two hot zones for the lists, an arrow clue appears to indicate the user can click there.
• Made the toolbar icons a bit more visible with darker shadows.
• The toolbar menu now has an icon for moving up to the parent directory.

Also in the news: German online magazine Netzwelt has a nice Viewer2 review up. Viewer2 was previously featured as the freeware application of the week and seems they still like it.

The review says only JPEG files are supported, it doesn’t mean the PNG support from the last version has been removed. :) Also, since the review mentioned they liked the spiral type ordering of images, I reiterate it is still there. See the FAQ for info how to enable the spiral.