Chapter 12. Organizing, Fixing, and Sharing Digital Photos

In This Chapter

  • Using the Pictures library to store digital photos and other images

  • Using Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize your photo collection

  • Customizing how your photos are displayed in Windows Live Photo Gallery

  • Personalizing photos with tags, captions, faces, and ratings

  • Importing photos from a smart phone, camera, memory card, scanner, or data disc

  • Editing photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery

  • Creating photo slide shows on your PC

  • Sharing photos with CDs and DVDs

  • Going old school: Ordering photo prints

  • Sharing photos via e-mail

  • Sharing photos online with Windows Live and other photo services

To say that Microsoft's approach to digital photos has been somewhat schizophrenic across the past several versions of Windows is an understatement. In Windows XP, Microsoft took a task-based approach to digital images, whereby you would manage them directly in the Explorer shell. In Windows Vista, that all changed: although some digital image tasks were still possible from the shell, Microsoft for the first time provided a discrete application, Windows Photo Gallery, for managing, editing, and sharing these files.

In Windows 7, it's all changed yet again. This time, Microsoft has changed the Windows shell dramatically to support virtual folder technology called Libraries. The Windows Photo Gallery was removed from Windows 7 and is included instead in the Windows Live Essentials application suite as Windows Live Photo Gallery. (As we ...

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