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

Hi,

I have posted elsewhere on this issue. Have used PI for years (since 2001) and still prefer it over other programs for simple image editing. It just does the job and is simple to use.

IT CAN BE INSTALLED ON WINDOWS 7 AND WORKS AS BEFORE.

Not so easy though. I have only found one way to do this. You MUST use an OEM install disk and it must NOT be SP1. Has to be older original issue or it wont work.

Install Windows 7 from CD.

Install Picture IT immediately.

Install Office 2000 or 97 if reuired ((you will not be able to open a file from explorer with Office 97 but you can open from within Office 97) Office 2000 works normally.

The office 2007 file format update works with both versions. This means you are able to read and write the insane docx format.

Now install drivers and update as you normally would.

NOTE THAT YOU WILL NEED TO RUN PICTURE IT AS ADMINISTRATOR.

cheers.

In an earlier post, I said I had downloaded Microsoft Digital Imaging and found it was really an update of Microsoft Picture it. I downloaded it by a link provided by a contributor somewhere else on this thread. I found it would do most of the things Picture-it would do - in fact, it did some new helpful things. It described itself as a starter edition and offered the opportunity to upgrade. It said some of the items would be disabled eventually in the starter edition and this has now happened. What I am left with won't do the job that Picture-it did. When I request the upgrade, nothing happened. This is presumably because Microsoft discontinued it on the nonsensical grounds that programs within Windows would do the same job. They must have known it wouldn't, so I join the disbelieving throng of Microsoft detractors.

What I want to know now is, since Microsoft have discontinued the program, where does the starter edition now come from?  I would like to get my original starter edition back but if I uninstall and reinstall it, I just get the version with features disabled. This seems quite senseless . Please can anybody help?

None of the methods suggested on this thread for getting Picture-it into Windows 7 will work for me - it won't install, let alone run. It's possible that using a Virtual Vista might allow it but I can't find any instructions for getting it that are full enough to enable me to do it.

John Presland

MS Picture It...........and the blinded greed of Microsoft

As brilliant as some of Microsoft's products are it is amazing to me what a bunch of morons run their customer relations decision making.......Are you guys at Microsoft really so blind that you can not see that you have thousands of money spending customers telling you that you have a unique and in many of their cases a desperately needed product in Picture It??? They are all telling you your replacement tools are garbage, they don't have the unique features needed and are no where near as good as your original package and you don't care????? Their are potential millions to be made marketing the software as unique but instead you flounder through OS upgrades that makes everyone have to go elsewhere to find solutions.....you make long time LOYAL clients so angry they hate you and will buy someone else's product and that does not bother you?.........Why don't you guys stop trying to squeeze nickels out of pockets long enough to listen??? I need this to work on new OS upgrades and so do all these people. This is absurd that this many people are asking you for help and your responses are generic workarounds that provide limited functionality. No wonder you guys are thinking of dropping the X-Box from the MS label.....that would work right along with many of the other pitifully stupid marketing decision's you have made in the last 5 years like Vista and taking the desktop out of Windows 8. Do you not get that when you take people completely out of their means of productivity and their comfort zones without a ladder to climb up that they get angry??? Why don't you brainiacs that are supposed to be so intelligent wake up to reality and fix this problem with an upgrade.......the clone tool, interface and file handling capabilities that Picture It offered are badly needed by your customers.....the ones that you haven't lost already anyway..........

Thank you for replying but I did see your earlier post and downloaded Microsoft Digital Imaging.  However I couldn't find anything on there which related to the making of cards which is all I used Picture It for, to be honest.  I use Windows Photo Gallery to print and re-size photos as that is all I do regarding photos - very basic really!  However, thank you for trying to help - much appreciated.