Photoshop 7 question
 

Everytime I open a picture in photoshop it always appears way darker than when I view it in the windows Viewer. Is there a setting that I can change to make this not happen anymore?

This happens due to photoshop's color settings. Photoshop can adjust how your images look to try to match them with how they would look when printed (if you are a publisher, for example). It has all different types of color working spaces. Go to Edit -> Color Settings... and maybe turn off color management if you want.