Using Your Lock Screen as a Digital Photo Frame

You can use the Lock screen on your Windows 8 PC as a digital photo frame. This can be useful if you have a Windows tablet such as a Surface, which comes with a stand. You can use any (or indeed all) of the pictures on your PC to display and you configure it through PC Settings.

To turn the Lock screen into a digital photo frame, click the Settings charm and then click Change PC Settings in the bottom right of the screen. When PC Settings open, click the tile for the Lock screen at the top of your screen.

When the Lock screen settings open, in the Slide Show section you will see your Pictures folder is selected, but you can click/touch this to remove it and add a different, or several different, pictures folders to use as the Slide Show.

Below these options are two additional switches. The first controls how long your PC is inactive before it locks and displays the Slide Show. This can be from 1 minute to 1 hour. The second switch tells the PC to switch off the display when the slide show has been running for a certain period of time, or not to turn off at all. Remember though that unless your PC is plugged in, leaving the Slide Show running will drain the battery.

When you are ready to activate the Slide Show and use your Lock screen as a digital photo frame, click/tap the Slide Show On switch.

Editing Your Photos in Windows Photo Gallery

The Photos app in Windows 8.1 doesn’t support editing your photos, and it’s well worth looking through the Microsoft Store to find photo-editing apps that you can use. If you see Adobe Photoshop Touch available, this is always an excellent purchase.

However, if you have downloaded the Windows Essentials Suite, Windows Photo Gallery offers some easy to use and really quite powerful photo-editing tools. You can double-click/touch a picture to open it in editing mode, and you will see that the Ribbon at the top of the window changes to an Edit tab. There are many controls to choose from, but I want to detail the ones you are most likely to use.

• The Manage section includes controls for rotating the image. 

• The Organize section allows you to add and manage tags. These can be used to make it easier to search for specific images. 

• The Adjustments panel is where the editing tools can be found. 

• Auto adjust will attempt to intelligently edit the brightness, contrast, rotation, and other aspects of the photograph. 

• Crop allows you to trim the image down to a smaller size, removing unwanted items from the main focus of the picture. 

• Red eye will help remove the red eye effect caused by some cam‐ eras. You can click/touch on the red in people’s eyes to have it intelligently removed. 

• Fine Tune gives you more control over the adjustments made by the Auto adjust feature. 

• Revert to Original is a very useful feature if you have made changes to a picture that you did not intend to make or that changed the photo in an unwelcome way. When you edit a photo using Windows Photo Gallery, a backup of the original image is made automatically. At any time, you can click/touch the Revert to Original button to restore that original image and undo any changes you have made.

Advanced Photo and Video Import Using Windows Photo Gallery

Sometimes you want more control over your photos—certainly when it comes to editing them—and this is where Microsoft’s Windows Photo Gallery software is useful. You can download it as part of the Windows Essentials Suite.

With Windows Photo Gallery installed on your Windows 8.1 computer (it won’t install on a Windows RT tablet), you get much more control over the photo and video import process.

To import photos using Windows Photo Gallery, open the Photo Gallery software and click/tap the File tab in the top left of the window. From the options that appear, click/tap Import photos and videos.

Note: If you are automatically taken to the Windows 8.1 Photo and Video Importer app, search for Default at the Start screen and run the Default Programs option that appears. Click/Touch Change autoplay settings in the page that appears and change the Camera Storage option to either Import Photos and Videos (Windows Photo Gallery) or Ask me every time.

A new import window will now appear where you have more choices.

Notes: If the photo and video import options aren’t appearing when you plug your camera or memory card into your computer, open the Photos app and from the App Bar select Import. Here, you will be able to tell Windows 8.1 where to import your pictures from.

Review, Organize, and Group Items to Import 

This option will group your photos by the date they were taken. This allows you to split photos taken on a longer trip or vacation into different folders to keep them separate. At the top of each group, you can enter a name for that group. Let’s say you were on a European road trip. On the first day you were in the Netherlands; on the second and third days, you were in Germany; and on the fourth day, you visited Poland. Because the Import Wizard splits the photos into groups sorted by date, you can label each group of photos appropriately.

Note : If the photo groups are not appearing correctly, you can use the Adjust groups slider in the bottom right of the window to create more or fewer groups, again arranged by date and time.

You can also select which photos and videos you wish to import by checking and unchecking the boxes in the top left of each thumbnail image. There are three different types of box you can check. 

1. The Select all check box will select every photo and video for import. 

2. You can check the box to the left of each group to select all of the items in that group.

3. You can select photos and videos individually using the check box to left of its thumbnail image.

In the bottom left of the import window is a More options link. This provides additional functionality, such as choosing the default import folder location for pictures and videos, the default naming convention for new photos and videos, whether you want Windows Photo Gallery to automatically rotate images so they are correctly oriented, and if you want photos and videos to be automatically deleted from your camera or memory card on import to Windows.

Import All New Items Now

The second option at the main import screen is much more straight‐ forward. It will import every photo and video from the camera or memory card. You will be prompted to give a name for the photos, perhaps Dusseldorf, October 2013, and this will be the name of the folder, and each imported photo and video will be labelled according to this name. 

Additionally, you can click/touch the Add tags link to add key words to the photos and videos that can make them easier to search for and organize. For example, you might add the words holiday and Germany. You can then search for Germany in Windows Photo Gallery, the Photos app, or File Explorer to bring up all photos taken in that country. You should separate all individual tags with a semicolon (;). 

New features for Windows 7 deployment

The following features are new for Windows 7 deployment:

Windows System Image Manager Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM) is a tool for creating distribution shares and editing answer files (Unattend .xml) . It exposes all configurable settings in Windows 7; you use it to save customizations in Unattend .xml . The Windows AIK 2 .0 includes the Windows SIM .

Windows Setup Setup for Windows 7 installs the Windows image ( .wim) file and uses the new Unattend .xml answer file to automate installation . Unattend .xml replaces the set of answer files used in earlier versions of Windows (Unattend .txt, Sysprep .inf, and so on) . Because image-based setup (IBS) is faster, you can use it in high-volume deployments and for automating image maintenance . Microsoft made numerous improvements to Windows Setup (now called Setup .exe instead of Winnt .exe or Winnt32 .exe), such as a completely graphical user interface, use of a single answer file (Unattend .xml) for configuration, and support for configuration passes (phases) .

Sysprep The System Preparation (Sysprep) tool prepares an installation of Windows 7 for imaging, auditing, and deployment . You use imaging to capture a customized Windows 7 image that you can deploy throughout your organization . You use audit mode to add additional device drivers and applications to a Windows 7 installation and test the integrity of the installation before handing off the computer to the end user . You can also use Sysprep to prepare an image for deployment . When the end user starts Windows 7, Windows Welcome starts . Unlike earlier versions of Windows, Windows 7 includes Sysprep natively—you no longer have to download the current version .

Windows Preinstallation Environment Windows Preinstallation Environment 3 .0 (Windows PE 3 .0) provides operating system features for installing, troubleshooting, and recovering Windows 7 . Windows PE 3 .0 is the latest release of Windows PE based on Windows 7 . With Windows PE, you can start a computer from a network or remov- able media . Windows PE provides the network and other resources necessary to install and troubleshoot Windows 7 . Windows Setup, Windows Deployment Services, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 (MDT 2010) all use Windows PE to start computers . The Windows AIK 2 .0 includes Windows PE 3 .0 . 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management Deployment Image Servicing
and Management (DISM) is a new command-line tool that you can use to service a Windows 7 image or prepare a Windows PE image . DISM consolidates the functionality of the Package Manager (Pkgmgr .exe), PEImg, and Intlcfg tools from Windows Vista . You can use DISM to service packages, device drivers, Windows 7 features, and inter- national settings in Windows 7 images . Additionally, DISM provides rich enumeration features that you can use to determine the contents of Windows 7 images .

ImageX ImageX is a command-line tool that you can use to capture, modify, and ap- ply file-based images for deployment . Windows Setup, Windows Deployment Services, System Center Configuration Manager 2007, and MDT 2010 all use ImageX to capture, edit, and deploy Windows 7 images . Windows 7 improves ImageX over Windows Vista by enabling it to mount multiple images simultaneously and support interim saves (you must still service each mounted image individually by using DISM) . Additionally, the Windows 7 version of ImageX has a new architecture for mounting and servicing images that is more robust than in Windows Vista . The Windows AIK 2 .0 includes ImageX . You can also mount images in Windows PE, and Windows 7 includes the device driver inbox .

Windows Imaging Microsoft delivers Windows 7 on product media as a highly compressed Windows Imaging ( .wim) file . You can install Windows 7 directly from the Windows 7 media or customize the image for deployment . Windows 7 images are file based, allowing you to edit them nondestructively . You can also store multiple operat- ing system images in a single .wim file .

DiskPart Using DiskPart, you can mount a virtual hard disk ( .vhd) file offline and service it just like a Windows image file .

User State Migration Tool You can use the User State Migration Tool 4 .0 (USMT 4 .0) to migrate user settings from the previous operating system to Windows 7 . Preserving user settings helps ensure that users can get back to work quickly after deployment . USMT 4 .0 provides new features that improve its flexibility and performance over USMT 3 .0 . Hard-link migration improves performance in refresh scenarios, offline mi- gration enables you to capture user state from within Windows PE, and the document finder reduces the need for you to create custom migration Extensible Markup Lan- guage (XML) files when capturing all user documents . The Windows AIK 2 .0 includes USMT 4 .0 . 

Importing Photos and Video from Your Digital Camera

You can import photos and video from your digital camera or camcorder in the same way, either by plugging your camera directly into your computer using a cable, or by removing the memory card from the camera and inserting it into a card reader built into or attached to the PC.

Note: If you plug a high-capacity memory card (32 GB or above in size) into your PC and all that happens is the PC says it’s unformatted, your card reader might be an older model that’s unable to read the newer, higher-capacity memory cards, try plugging your camera into your PC via USB instead.

When you insert your memory card into your PC or plug your camera in via a USB or other cable, you will be taken to the Photos app import screen . Here you will be shown thumbnail images of all the photos on your memory card and all the pictures and videos that are new (at least that have not previously been marked on the memory card as having been imported already) will be selected.

Note: You can bulk select photos by clicking the first in a group to be imported and then holding down the Shift key on your keyboard when you click the last one in the group.

You can select which photos and videos on the camera or memory card you want to import by clicking them. By default, it will create a folder in your Pictures library named for the date (year, month, day) you have imported the photos, but you can rename the file. To change the name of the folder your photos and video will be imported to, perhaps from 2012-06-14 to Amsterdam, October 2012, click/touch the white box at the bottom of the screen to edit the folder name.

Note: If not all of your photos and videos are appearing on the screen, scroll to the right to view more of them, as only so many will be displayed on the screen at one time.

When you are ready to import photos and videos to your computer, click/touch the Import button in the bottom right of the screen to start the import process. When this is complete, you will be asked if you want to open the album you have created to view the imported photos and videos on your computer. 

The imported photos will not be deleted from your memory card or camera during this import process, so you will have to delete them afterward, either using File Explorer on the Windows 8.1 desktop or the camera settings. 

Using Windows Media Player

If you want more control over your music library and you are using a desktop computer, laptop, or Windows 8.1 Pro tablet, you can use Windows Media Player. You can start Windows Media Player by searching for media at the Start screen.

This software offers several advantages over the Music app, especially for people with large music collections. In the left panel are quick links to let you arrange and view your music by Artist, Album, or Genre, and you can also view your Videos and Pictures here as well. Below these links are direct links to any other computers or network devices that are sharing pictures, music, and video on your network. This can include other computers and network storage. 

Perhaps the best functionality with Windows Media Player is the advanced ability to control playlists. Click/Touch Create Playlist in the options bar that runs along the top of the window and you can create either a standard playlist or an auto playlist. Let me explain the difference.

When you create a Standard playlist, it will appear in the left-side navigation panel in Windows Media Player. You can drag and drop music onto this playlist using your mouse to add music to it. 

Auto playlists, however, will automatically add music to the playlists depending on various criteria that you set . You can choose from a great many options here to create, for example, auto playlists of your most played music or even music tracks that you’ve never played.

If, at any time, you want to create an audio CD—perhaps to play your favorite music in the car—you can do this by clicking the Burn link in the top right of the window and dragging and dropping the music tracks you want into the panel that appears. When you have selected the tracks you want, click/touch the Start Burn button to burn your audio CD (you will need a blank CD and a CD burner drive in your computer to do this).

Playing Your Music in Windows 8.1

The Music app is also opened from the Start screen and looks and works in a very similar way to the Video app. When you first open it, you are shown music that you can purchase online. Swipe left to view your own music collection (or move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and a scroll bar will appear that you can drag left).

The Music app will show your most recently added music first. Click/ touch the My Music link to view the whole music collection on your computer. Here you can arrange your music by Songs, Albums, or Artists by clicking the links on the left side of the screen . You can also view any Playlists you have created. More on creating playlists will follow shortly.

Note: You can create a new playlist at any time in the Music app by clicking/touching the + New playlist button on the left of the screen.

You can click/touch the Date Added link at the top of the screen to sort and arrange your music in different ways, including by genre or by A to Z. 

When you click/touch on an album, the screen changes to display a track list for that album. Here, you can click/touch on an individual track to play. Play, add to playlist, artist details, and more options buttons appear top center above the track list, and in the bot‐ tom right of the screen are next (and previous) track, play, and volume controls. 

At any time when music is playing, you can also click/touch the + button next to the name of the currently playing track to add the track to the end of the current music playlist.

Note: Open the App Bar at any time to display the play controls in the Music and Video apps.