JD750 Loc: SoCal

Yes that is good but recent announcements have revealed that your searches are now of interest and available to the Justice dept. So you might want to factor that in to your thoughts about Google and privacy.

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

I really don't care if the US Dept. of Justice wants to know what I searched. I'm clean, and the justice system should be able to get dirt on me if there is any.

What I don''t want is for commercial businesses trying to guess what I want to do, see, or buy. I like having a clean search history for that reason. --Richard

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Sadly, you are missing the point.

There are legal ways for law enforcement to obtain evidence for investigations. We are talking about unmitigated access. That is not what happens in a country where free speech is protected.

Please No more of this here, we can start a separate post for this if you like.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Yes, this is another example of thread random walk.

KenY Loc: Glenside, Pa

I haven't spent much time with the Photo app in Windows 10, but I've been using Microsoft Office Picture Manager for many years. It has enough capability to meet my needs MOST of the time, but I don't consider my needs sufficient to justify spending $20/month for a full-featured editor like Lightroom or something similar. I usually just use the AUTOCORRECT button to brighten up a photo, or use the cropping and resize & compression tools to make some images smaller in size.

I have been considering adopting a free, more fully-featured editor such as GIMP for those times when I need more than MsOPM can handle, but I haven't used it yet.

MsOPM used to come bundled in the Office Suite, but was removed since around Office 2013. But it is still available as a free download as part of the Sharepoint Designer 2010 package.

From the Microsoft website, here's instructions on how to get & install MsOPM:

* Download SharePoint Designer 2010 here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16573
* In the ensuing message (at the bottom of your screen) that asks if you want to Run or
Save the .exe file, click Run. (Or SAVE and run from your local hard-drive.)
* Accept the license terms and click Continue.
* On the Choose the installation you want page, click Customize.
* Expand Office Tools and select Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
* Click the drop-down arrow next to Microsoft Office Picture Manager and click Run from my computer.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

fyi, Lightroom is only $9.99/month, and includes Bridge and PHotoshop

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

As noted, Lightroom is $9.99/month (plus sales tax), but Lightroom is not quite a full-featured editor. Photoshop fills that bill and is included in the Lightroom subscription. However, Lightroom has organizing capability which is essential to me in my advanced age (declining meat memory).

I would not consider using an edit that only works for me MOST of the time. I see no value in working in several different editors (although from Lightroom you can use other external editors when Lightroom doesn't fill the bill -- Photoshop is what I use most often, but I have also set LR up to use Topaz DeNoiseAI and Topaz SharpenAI). Although they are separate programs, they are all easily accessible from Lightroom, so whenever I have images they go into Lightroom. That puts them into the organizational system. If I send them to an external editor, they are automatically returned to Lightroom so it keeps things organized.

I don't use or know anything about MOPM, but there are other freeware editors that do pretty basic things. Some of them were originally designed to be viewers and added functionality later (e.g. IrfanView, FastStone). GIMP is a freeware editor that almost emulates Photoshop. I used GIMP when I was starting out but eventually switched to Photoshop because PS did things I wanted to do that GIMP didn't. That was a decade or more ago so I expect GIMP does more things, but then so does Photoshop. Using GIMP was valuable in that it got me used to using layers and masks. However, switching to PS was a pain because the UI is quite different for the two programs.

KenY Loc: Glenside, Pa

Thanks for the info, Sodapop, but it's still not cost effective for me. I'm not a professional photog, and my needs are pretty basic.

therwol Loc: USA

I had forgotten about this. This is exactly what I used before purchasing more complex editing software (Photoshop and Lightroom.)

dreff Loc: Bow, WA

I spose if I could blow those up I could tell a difference. My computer monitor is 23". I use Windows 10 Photo and yes, when "saving a copy" the file sizes are greatly reduced but unless I crop heavily, I cannot tell the difference.