Why do the edits made in Picasa not show in Photo Gallery?

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Ludwig

Ah, the ways “Of Mice and Picasa” [*]. How the computer mouse works, you know pretty well, but Picasa, now that is a different creature altogether.

When you make an edit to an image in Picasa those changes are not incorporated into the image file. Well, some are, but for the most part those changes Picasa just stores away for its own use.

Here is an example. Let’s say you have a precious photo of that fine wheel on your motor carriage. To show really what a hot conveyance your vehicle is you apply the Heat Map effect in Picasa.

You want to touch it up in Photo Gallery. Low and behold, the Heat Map effect is not there. The photo looks exactly as it did before.

Let’s look in File Explorer. The photo there does not show the edits either. Indeed, the edits only show in Picasa and not in any other program or app.

See that “picasa.ini” icon in File Explorer? That’s your hint that Picasa does things differently.

But you want to share your Hot Wheel with your friends. What to do?

The solution is easy, but something you have to remember. In Picasa, after you have made any edits, do a “Save As…” and save a copy of the image. That image will have the edits incorporated and they will show properly everywhere.

[*] With all due apologies to John Steinbeck. No offense was intended.

.:.

How do I get AutoPlay to import photos from a flash drive?

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Ludwig

Normally when you plug in your camera or the memory card the AutoPlay program on your PC will automatically start the photo import routine. If you use an USB drive or adapter this might not happen.

This article provides detailed instructions for checking your PC and setting it up so that the import routine will start when you plug in a USB device or memory card that has photos on it.

This will work on PCs running Windows 7 and earlier versions. This will not work on Windows 8.1 – just forget about AutoPlay on Windows 8.1, it isn’t ready for prime time yet.

First make sure that the external media is recognized.

Plug in your USB device or memory card. Listen for the sound that tells you that the PC has recognized something being plugged in.
Check Windows Explorer to make sure that the device is listed under Computer.

If this part does not work you have a problem beyond the scope of this article.

Second make sure that AutoPlay is properly set.

Click the Start button and type autoplay
The AutoPlay program will show up in the start menu already selected (highlighted). Press Enter to start it.
Take a look in the AutoPlay window near the top. There is a checkbox with this text: “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices”. If this box is not checked, click it so that it is checked.

Click the Save button.
Now try and see if your external device is recognized and causes AutoPlay to start.

Chanced are that the PC will behave just as it did before and the media does not start AutoPlay.

To get your PC to start AutoPlay for an USB device or memory card you will need to do a bit of “brain surgery”. What we will do next is to modify a setting in the “registry”. Read this article through first. If you are reluctant to dig this deep into the inner workings of your computer don’t feel bad. Things can go wrong and it is possible to do harm. This is brain surgery on your PC. Just get an expert friend to help you, or take your machine to your friendly computer shop.

If you feel that you can handle the process go ahead and “scrub in”.

Setting your PC to start AutoPlay for USB or other devises

Here are step by step instructions with illustrations along the way to guide you.

Click the Start button and type regedit
In the Registry Editor window click the Edit link.
In the dropdown menu click Find…

There will be an additional Find dialog window.

In the text entry box type NoDriveTypeAutoRun

Click Find Next

You will see a message “Searching the registry” – it will take a while to complete this search. When the search is finished you will see something like the illustration below.

There will be an entry that we searched for and it will be selected (highlighted).

Double-click on the highlighted entry.

A new little dialog window will come up.

The “Value data:” will likely be “ff” as shown in the illustration. The value will be selected so you can cjange it by just typing the new value.

Type 91 as the new value.
Click OK

The change dialog will close and the new value, 0x00000091 (145) will show in the registry data area.

Close the Registry Editor

That’s it. You have completed the brain surgery. You can take of your mask now, smile at the nurse and go on to the next details.

Final details

Restart your computer
When the computer has come up, plug in your device

Now momentarily after the beep you should see the AutoPlay dialog.

Cheer, clap your hands
In the AutoPlay dialog click the checkbox “Always do this for pictures:”
Then click Import pictures and videos using Photo Gallery

There may be a number of other option as illustrated here. Yours will be different from mine. The important thing to remember is that the Photo Gallery importer is the very best one available. None of the others do as good a job, give you the variety of options, or make it as easy.

After you click Import pictures and videos using Photo Gallery the normal import process will start. It will start that way in the future whenever you plug in your device.

If this solves your problem, do me a favor and let me know with a comment below.

.:.

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How do I include items in my Windows 8 Photos library?

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Ludwig

You might have photos in a folder other than “My Pictures” or on a drive other that “C:”. Those photos will not be displayed in the Photos tile on the start screen and will not shown in Photo Gallery. Rather than moving the photos or their folder around on your PC, the proper way is to include the folder containing those pictures in you Pictures library. Here is the procedure for doing that:

Open File Explorer.
In the navigation bar on the left, locate the folder you wish to include in the Pictures library.
Right-click the folder name.
In the next menu click Include in library
This provides a list of your libraries, click the one to use – in this case Pictures

Win8-Lib-01

That’s it. You have now included the folder in the Pictures library. Yes, you can include a whole drive. You will get the same menu when you right-click a drive name.

Your photos from the included folders will show up in all programs and apps that use the library, like Windows Photo Gallery, Picasa, of course, File Explorer. They will also be displayed in the Start page Photos app.

Win8-Lib-12

.:.

How do I import just certain photos from my camera to my computer?

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Ludwig

Microsoft Photo Gallery provides a very flexible import tool. For the easiest way to use this tool, first set up your computer to launch it when you connect your camera. Check this post for instructions on setting up your computer: How do I import photos from my camera to my Windows 7 computer?

To specify just the photos that you wish to import use the options in the import dialog. When the dialog opens the photos on your camera are shown in groups by the time/date the photos were taken. The groups that you have not yet imported are checked. Note the Select all option above the listings.

Click this several times to select all or to unselect all. You want them all unselected.

If you do not want the imported photos to be placed into multiple folders, adjust the Adjust groups slider all the way to the right. You will see the results in the main area.

Click the View all xx items link on the right of the listing to show thumbnails of all photos.

Now proceed through the thumbnails and select the photos you wish to import. Selecting works just as you expect. Click to select, click again to unselect.