What, no Photo Gallery or Movie Maker in Windows 7?
If you’ve read any of the online forums lately, a number of PC users who purchased the new Windows 7 were disappointed to find out some programs they relied upon in Windows Vista aren’t included in Windows 7. Don’t worry, we can help.
If you booted up Windows 7 and realized it’s missing some programs — such as Windows Movie Maker (for video editing) and Windows Photo Gallery (photo management) — well, you’re absolutely right.
In order to make Windows 7 a leaner install, and to provide consumers with more choice, you won’t find these programs installed on the new operating system.
Don’t worry, though, as you can download all these goodies for free, if you want them. Called Windows Live Essentials, you get lots of good stuff in one download, including instant messaging and email software, photo and video management and editing programs, blogging tools, and more.
The total download is 134MB in size, though initially it’s only 1 megabyte or so until it pulls down everything you need to get going.
After installation, you’ll find your new programs in the Windows Live folder on the Windows Start menu.
Enjoy!
Marc, I believe Windows 7 does not have a OE program- does it have another program for retrieving my emails?
Ron
Windows Live Essentials also includes Windows Live Mail. Good program for average user. You can also try Thunderbird from Mozilla
Can you install these from your old installation of Vista (e.g. copy them to disk and reinstall the after you install Windows 7?
Hi Ron,
Yes, you’re right — there is no mail program (Outlook Express or otherwise) built into Windows 7.
But the good news is Windows Mail is included in that Windows Live Essentials download.
Here’s more info on it: http://download.live.com/wlmail
Best,
Marc Saltzman
Another great tool that I miss from XP PowerToy days is “Image Resizer”.
It provides a quick right-click accessible tool to resize images for email/Internet/etc. in various sizes: 640x, 800x, 1024x, etc.
Fortunately, there’s a free open-source clone that works with Vista & 7: http://sourceforge.net/projects/phototoysclone/
Microsoft did not include those programs in Windows 7 because they want people to use their Windows Live applications instead.
Echoing Terry’s question, is it possible to save or download the old Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker from Vista and put them on Windows 7. The new Live versions do not have all the same features.
Hey Richard,
I’ll ask Microsoft if this is possible. Good question.
Best,
Marc
Hi Richard,
I asked Microsoft to answer. Here you go:
Windows Live Photo gallery has some added features compared to Window Photo Gallery, like fix red eyes, cropping, publish online … And the UI is very similar. I am not sure why one wouldn’t prefer Windows Live Photo Gallery.
For Windows Live Movie Maker, it is a different product than Windows Movie Maker, especially the UI. Most of the features are still there. The product has been redesigned to be simpler but with very powerful functionality. Having said that Windows Live Movie Maker support project files from the old Windows MM.
In both case, you can’t install the old version on Windows 7.
Best,
Marc
I found that there’s no way to use inline photo even though there’s an option in new windows live mail when you click email. Selecting that option still will use online mode. And gone is the option to allow you to specify a resize when you click email.
I also found that when I use the insert photo inline that it’s broken. At one time I got a crash and 2nd time it did send the email but with no image included. That used to work fine. Seems inline photo is as much discouraged as possible.
Note there’s a built-in resize in live photo gallery. Just select all photo’s and right click and choose resize. It will then make a copy with the selected size. Now you can attach those as files. So that’s a workaround but why make it so hard now to do this in Windows 7 compared to Vista?
Actually just noticed that the file explorer still has resize options when you click email. It just doesn’t have the multi-select but that’s ok (just hold CTRL to do the same).
So change is basically that there’s no way to inline photo’s (if anyone is able let me know) and no inline image resize resolution options in Windows Live Photo gallery.
Just wondering how to save my existing emails and contacts on Windows Mail for Vista?
If I upgrade to Windows 7 and then download Windows Live Essentials will all my original saved emails and contacts go into the program, or do I have to save all of these emails and contacts somewhere/somehow?
Thanks!
Hotmail/Windows Live folders and contacts are typically stored online so you would keep all of those when you (re)install windows live mail (which didn’t change much if at all in Windows 7).
You can verify by checking online. If you see all your data including contacts on http://mail.live.com/ you should be fine.
But just in case there’s also an import/export in Windows live mail: See file menu and import and export.
Thanks.
I curently use Windows Mail though that came with Vista. Once I install Windows 7 wouldn’t all my emails and contacts be erased from Windows Mail seeing as there isn’t an email program that gets installed with W7?
Thanks
When you install Windows Live Mail again in Windows 7 it should pull all messages and contact list from online storage. You can double-check by installing Windows Live Mail on another machine and see if you get all mails/contact there. If not I would export (file menu) all emails and contacts.
I’m confused. (not unusual, I’m old)
I’ve been using Vista for 2 years, not unpleased,
and have the 7 upgrade disc in front of me. I’ve
looked around 7, and saw the “missing application”
issue – Windows Mail is not an issue for me, I’m
using Thunderbird, but I’m confused about the whole
“Windows Live” thing ….
Windows Live Mail content is stored on-line ?
I download all my emails to my machine – if I just
wanted on-line email, I’d just use the service
from my local ISP … can Live Mail download the
emails to this machine ?
The real issue for me is the Photo Gallery, the best
feature of Vista as far as I was concerned – the “Fix”
option did all the photo-editing I needed – the “Photo
Gallery” that I saw on the 7 machine was the exact same
EXCEPT for the “fix” button ….
So is the “Live Photo Gallery” an on-line thing as well,
or will it stand alone ? I’m in the country, on a dial-up
connection; I don’t want to have to connect to the internet
just to take some red-eye out of a photo on my machine.
Windows email accounts were always stored online but Windows Live Mail downloads and syncs mail folders/contacts so you can work offline. Nothing has much changed really there.
Photo Gallery is virtually the same. You don’t need to be online to edit your photo’s and it also still supports tags/libraries.
The only change I noticed is when you want to email your photo’s. It will always upload online first and then provide link in your email (a feature I don’t care for but workaround is to use the file explorer to physically attach).
I only played little bit with fix feature but looks to me at least as powerful as Vista’s fix option.
I installed Live Photo Gallery after installing Windows 7, but it doesn’t work. The program won’t launch at all.
I am NOT impressed with Windows Live Movie Maker. Why would you upgrade the operating system and downgrade the Movie Maker? New version has less functionality, fewer transitions and effects, and for some reason will not allow me to add music. Please tell me this is going to be fixed.