I've read several topics on this, but they were from 2012. Can't seem to find anything much more recent than that, so I thought I'd repost this question, to see if anything had changed. 

I'm going to try to be as clear as possible: I want to open animated .gif files in Windows Live Photo Gallery. 
I already have it set as my default program. This is not the issue. I keep seeing people post that as an answer, and it's simply blatantly beside the point. 
When you open .gif files in Windows Live Photo Gallery, they display the first frame, and you can go through them frame by frame. I would like to disable that, and instead have it play the .gif file in it's full, animated form. 
I do not want to use a different program. I like WLPG, and have been using it for a long time. I know how it works, and trust it. 
Answers suggesting a different program will be ignored outright. 

I read elsewhere that this feature was disabled because in the past it opened up a pretty major hole in the security of the system, allowing adware to run rampant. 
In that same thread, one of the mods/admins/whatever you call them here posted a link to another program which can open them, apparently without the same security hole. So, this problem doesn't make any sense to me. Clearly it can be implemented in a safe manner, as other programs manage just fine. 
Even if this is not the case, I feel I should have the right to opt-in to the service if I want, and trust my adware blockers to protect me. Perhaps that's naive, but I'm just leaving all possible options open.

So, what I'm looking for is a codec, or add-on, or update, or even a mod. 
I am using Windows 10.