Most of these settings deal with the way Picasa deals with you and your photos. In Picasa the Tools menu Options Dialog box is where you configure Picasa's behavior and the features you want to use. The things to check include the Options dialog, Whether to use Face Recognition, File types to show, and setting up the Picasa Picture Viewer. Once Picasa is installed on your computer you should check the configuration options to be sure it is set up the way you want it. Photos added to a folder set to Scan Once are not automatically scanned.Ĭonfigure Picasa Options to your preferences It is useful to keep an external drive in the database if it is disconnected. Note: For most normal photo collections, "Scan Once" (the green check mark) should never be used. Hint: If you don't want to use Face Recognition on some folders, you can select the "Face Detection On" button to turn it off for the selected folder and any subfolders. Note: These are your working photo collection, you don't want to be including backups or archives because they are copies that should never be touched unless the original is accidentally deletedĬlick the OK button when finished to verify the changes Set My Pictures and any other Folders you want to see in Picasa to "Scan Always" (the blue circular arrow).Įxample - You have Photos in My Documents: Also set My Documents to Scan Always.Įxample - You have photos in a folder on the P: drive: Also set that Folder to Scan Always under the P drive. Set All drives to Remove from Picasa, and set all folders you don't want to see in Picasa to Remove from Picasa (the red X). To see sub-folders of the main drive or folder, click on the triangle to the left of the folder or drive to expand it and show the subfolders.
Note: Setting a drive or folder to "Remove from Picasa" Does not erase the folder or drive, it simply tells Picasa to ignore it and not show it to you in the library or folder collection. The Folder List on the left shows all the Drives and Folders on your Computer. Go to the Tools menu -> Folder Manager (see photos below). If you want to see other folders later you can always go to the folder manager and set them to be watched or you can remove folders you no longer want to watch without deleting the photos.Ĭonfigure Tools -> Folder Manager so Picasa will see all your photos
If you have a scanner that scans to a folder on your computer, you can either make sure that folder is a subfolder of My Pictures, or tell Picasa to watch that scanner folder, that way you can use the normal scanner software and the scans will automatically be shown in Picasa. This avoids Picasa scanning a bunch of non-photo folders. A better option is to have a folder on that drive that contains all the photo subfolders and watch that folder in Picasa. If that drive only contains photos, you could set the whole drive to be seen in Picasa. You might want to keep your photos on a separate drive either so you don't fill up the C: drive, or to keep them separate.
This will allow you to use Picasa to move those photos to the folders you want them in, rather than having to use Windows Explorer. Many people routinely copy photos from the web or Emails to the Desktop, so the Desktop could be set to show in Picasa. If you don't want to include all subfolders in Documents, you might still want to see photos in a few subfolders, so you could set up to watch just those folders. The My Documents folder is often included if you sometimes create documents that have photos associated.
You can dismiss the new filmstrip or photo editing toolbars by clicking on photos, and swipe between images without any distracting UI elements.Determine where your Photos are stored on your computerĪlmost everyone should include the My Pictures folder because even if you don't keep all your photos there, many Windows programs save pictures there.
While the photos app in Windows 10 didn’t include a particularly cluttered UI, Microsoft has simplified it slightly in Windows 11. This is great if you’ve been out shooting all day and want to quickly select photos to keep or discard. Multi-view is the best addition for me personally, as you can compare a bunch of photos in a single window. The new filmstrip UI in the Windows 11 photos app. It makes it easier to jump between them, or select multiple photos to enter the new “multi-view” UI. The biggest addition is a new filmstip at the bottom of the photo viewer that shows small thumbnails of all the photos in a particular folder, collection, or album. Like many other parts of Windows, the photos app has been redesigned to match the new operating system, with subtle improvements that help when you’re flicking through a collection of photos or videos. Microsoft has started testing a new photos app for Windows 11.