Microsoft Picture It incompatability with Windows 7 and alternatives for .mix files.

Anonymous
2009-12-18T06:22:35+00:00

I have been using Microsoft Picture It for years to design tons of graphics for my business and now I have purchased a new pc loaded with Windows 7 and find that my true love Picture It! is not compatable.  I never dreamed this would be the case for a software that isn't even a decade old or that new pc I just spent thousands on would be sitting right back at the store it came from.  I really feel that Microsoft has cheated me out of something I paid for and invested so much work in by making it unusable and it has brought my small business to a standstill.  What other program is available that is compatable with Windows 7 that will allow me to edit and view existing .mix and other Picture It! format files and contain all the capabilities of Picture It?  I would be willing to purchase additional software from Microsoft to make Picture It compatable to Windows 7 if necessary.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Apps

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Anonymous
2011-03-14T18:21:06+00:00

Hello all,

I know that you are all disappointed that Microsoft Picture It is not compatible with Windows 7. 

Your feedback would be better heard if you send it to the Windows 7 Feedback site.

http://mymfe.microsoft.com/Windows%207/Feedback.aspx?formID=195

These are your options when software is not compatible:

If the program is not compatible, then you may try to install and run the program in compatibility mode.

Use the following steps:

1)      Right click on the Program

2)      Click on Properties

3)      Click on Compatibility tab

4)      Select Run this program in compatibility mode and select Windows XP, Windows Vista or whatever operating system the program was running successfully.

Refer to the link here: Make older programs run in this version of Windows

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows

If you run Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate version, install Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP mode (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/default.aspx) and execute your software in Windows XP.

If you run Windows 7 Home Premium, try VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org) or VMware Player

(www.vmware.com) or any other 3party virtualization software and install a separate copy of Windows XP (either Home Edition or Professional) for that purpose. You can find virtualization software free of charge that will run on Windows 7 Home Premium. 

Sincerely,

Marilyn

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-01-01T19:24:17+00:00

    Hi Nichegirl, 

    Sorry to hear you are having the software compatibility problems you've indicated. 

    I am still running both Windows XP and Windows-7 Ultimate on several of my machines (PC's) and have no special desire to run Windows 8 or 10. 

    My recommendation for most any graphic needs would be to install a copy of Microsoft PhotoDraw V2 that I use very successfully to do nearly anything from photo editing to creating my own 3-D logos, screen captures, collages and even caricatures, all at professional quality. If for any reason I need more, I reopen my file in Adobe Photoshop in what ever file format I save it in from PhotoDraw V2 and do what ever I need to there.

    The three programs I work most successfully with and often use in progression, are PhotoDraw V2, Photoshop CS-3 or CS-5 and for manipulating architectural perspectives: DXO-Viewpoint that is a breeze to use. Beyond that, Photomatix is quite nice for enhancing photographic images via HDR or 'high dynamic range' and has the capability of generating HDR images from a single Jpg or Tif image. 

    I have been using MS PhotoDraw V2 since it was released in 1999/2000 and would be lost without it for its speed, versatility and the proficiency with which I can use it. 

    If interested, you can almost always find copies available on eBay. Most are included in the Microsoft Office Premium 2000 but make sure you are getting the 'version-2' and not its forerunner. 

    Happy New Year ahead! 

    ~ Jerry S.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-01-01T17:57:10+00:00

    Oh dear, I do seem to have upset Marianne. I'm really sorry about this. I really was intending to be helpful, but plainly went the wrong way about it. Re PAMBY65's points, you do me more than justice. I've never used PI for collages at all - just for photo editing. As you say, I know nothing about it. But I have produced collages with other programs, so I do know what they are. I do think it possible that, if Marianne had been prepared to tell me in more detail how she was using PI, I might have been able to suggest alternatives in more detail than I did. They would only have been suggestions - I certainly make no claim to be all-knowing. However, it's probably too late for that now. I can only repeat my point that, if you are interested only in punishing Microsoft, and will not accept the possibility that PI's approach to collages is not the only one worth considering, you are unlikely to find other ways of achieving what you want. You can hope only that Microsoft relents. I hear that they are thinking of making more old programs available on Windows 10. Indeed, it is supposed to be possible to use compatibility features to use PI on W10, but it won't work for me. There are also people who have used it on Windows 7 - though again I couldn't. I could still use it on an old laptop that runs on Vista, but Vista is supposed to be unsafe after April 17 and I don't want to be hopping from one computer to another anyway.

    Although it's not my problem, I do find it interesting, and would love to hear from someone who can tell me how they use PI for collages and why they think there's no alternative.

    John Presland

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-12-31T17:34:20+00:00

    Sweet! Can't wait to try it! I'll let you know how it turns out.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-12-31T17:30:12+00:00

    Calm down everyone. Please don't let this turn into where these last two replies are headed.

    Marianne... in one of John's earliest posts, he stated that he only used PI for collages that he then saved to JPEG files. Later, when I referred to the MIX file type, he admitted not knowing what that was at all. My point is that he never used PI the was you, me and others did and do so the other options out there meet his needs and have provided him even better functionality.

    John... Your evaluations and recommendations are based on your specific use of PI in the past and now, the new products. You state in one reply that the range of editing in what you are currently using is greater than PI. I will agree that I have seen programs with more enhanced "photo" editing capabilities but that is not what we are referring to in our complaints.  I would ask you to reread our posts and the functionality we are looking for in anything new. 

    None of us are inflexible so please, let's not be unkind.

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