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    Advantages with Live Photo Gallery in XP?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Apollo13, Jan 1, 2009.

  1. Apollo13

    Apollo13 100% 16:10 Screens

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    I went to install Windows Live Messenger today, and the Live installer had a bunch of other Live programs as well. Most I didn't see any use for, but one was Windows Live Photo Gallery. I remember seeing that this was supposed to add something to make photo-browsing easier, but I'm not sure exactly what. Since I have XP, I already have the Filmstrip photo view option, so it's not like Explorer is lacking in the photo department. And Windows Picture and Fax Viewer seems to work pretty well, too. Wikipedia had this list of features:

    *An improved photo/video import tool, providing the ability to view, select, and tag photos that are automatically grouped by date-taken.[3]
    *Ability to view a photo's color histogram with shadow and highlight adjustment, or to adjust a photo's sharpness.[4]
    *Panoramic stitching using technology developed by Microsoft Research.[5]
    *Batch resize of photos.[6] and rotation of videos
    *Support for displaying QuickTime videos when QuickTime 7 is installed.

    Are any of these particularly useful? I can't see why I'd want to batch resize photos, at least all to the same size, and similarly rotation tends to be on a one-at-a-time, not 200 in a row, basis. Adjusting color may be useful, but I'm skeptical that an Explorer tool could do that well. And the Wikipedia screenshot of browsing photos in Live Photo Gallery in Vista made it look less helpful than Filmstrip view in XP.

    Perhaps also importantly, is it un-installable if I decide I don't like it? With the track record of Windows Media Player and the .NET frameworks I figure it's probably better to ask than assume.
     
    Apollo13, Jan 1, 2009
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  2. mk.2

    mk.2 Notebook Geek

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    Live Photo Gallery is just another picture browser/organizer like Picasa or XnView. Features that are listed on Wikipedia are pretty common to most applications of this type.

    IIRC, Live Photo Gallery is one of a few softwares that enables Windows XP to view HD Photo format. If you do not use this format, imo, there's no need to install Live Photo Gallery.

    If you need some features that Live Photo Gallery offers, like batch resizing or sharpness adjustment, you can use XnView instead. It's smaller and don't have to install ( .zip).
     
    mk.2, Jan 1, 2009
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  3. vinumsv

    vinumsv MobileFreak™

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    or Irfan View : The Best Image Viewer in its class and Free
     
    vinumsv, Jan 1, 2009
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  4. entropy.cz

    entropy.cz Notebook Evangelist

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    agree, i haven't found anything better than Irfan View, i've been using it for years, lately with IrfanView Thumbnails (i didn't like Thumbnails originally for some reason, but cannot remember why). it has tons of useful plugins, too.
     
    entropy.cz, Jan 1, 2009
    #4