March 3rd, 2008
My 10 favorite Windows programs of all time
Windows Live Photo Gallery (Microsoft)
Info/Download
Price: Free
System requirements: Windows XP SP2 or later, or Windows Vista
If you think too much about how this particular program came to be, you’ll need a whole bottle of Advil. Technically, it’s an upgrade to Windows Photo Gallery, which debuted in Windows Vista. But this “upgrade” is also available for Windows XP, and you can’t get it through Windows Update on Vista. Huh?
Blame it on fallout from the U.S. Government’s successful antitrust prosecution and the subsequent consent decree, which severely limits what Microsoft can legally bundle with Windows. Ship a bare-bones utility in the OS and no one will complain. Deliver a decent upgrade and you’re on shaky ground. Provide at least three degrees of separation from that OS and you’re OK again.
So you have to work to find this download. But it’s worth the search. It resolves the biggest complaint about the original Photo Gallery - its oversimplified import path. The revised import wizard groups photos by date and time and lets you pick and choose which ones to import. It also adds a whizzy bit of technology that lets you stitch photos together into widescreen panoramas. Its tagging and basic photo editing features are mostly unchanged, which is just fine. All in all, this free download is one of the best programs Microsoft has developed in ages.
Windows Live Photo Gallery images
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Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 03/03/08
