Windows Live Photo Gallery Wiki

	Windows Live Photo Gallery wiki
Category Graphic Apps Gallery & Cataloging Tools

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Windows Live Photo Gallery

Screenshot of Windows Live Photo Gallery 2009
Developed by	Microsoft
Latest release	2009 (Build 14.0.8064.0206) / 2009-02-12; 268 days ago
Operating system	Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Type	Photo management and sharing
Website	http://photogallery.live.com

Previous version

Windows Live Photo Gallery is a photo management and sharing application released as a part of Microsoft's Windows Live initiative. It is an upgraded version of Windows Photo Gallery, which is a part of Windows Vista. Windows Live Photo Gallery also supports Windows XP and facilitates viewing any image format supported by the Windows Imaging Component (including HD Photo) on Windows XP, if the appropriate WIC codecs are installed. The application is available for download via the Windows Live Essentials suite.

[edit] Features

Windows Live Photo Gallery provides management, tagging, and searching capabilities for digital photos. It provides an image viewer that can replace the default OS image viewer, and a photo import tool that can be used to acquire photos from a camera or other removable media. Windows Live Photo Gallery allows sharing of photos by uploading them to Windows Live Spaces and Flickr. According to Microsoft, it may gain the ability to upload to other photo sharing sites if the sites agree to using common protocols.^[1] Windows Live Photo Gallery is also required for downloading full resolution photos and albums from Windows Live Spaces. It can publish videos to Soapbox on MSN Video.^[2] The ability to view animated GIF images is notably absent. Instead, when viewed, it displays every frame of an animated gif which may come in handy if a user wanted only a frame. Windows Live Photo Gallery includes all the features of Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista. It adds several new features including:

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.

Although it is an upgraded version of Windows Photo Gallery, some features (such as themed photo slideshows and video support) which use Windows Vista-specific technologies are not available on Windows XP. Windows Live Photo Gallery also integrates with Windows Live Sync and allows the synchronization of the photo library between two or more computers with Photo Gallery installed and signed in on the same Windows Live ID.