Photo Gallery and Windows 10

I want Photo Gallery back!

I "upgraded" to Windows 10, believing those who told me it would be great. Well, not so much!  The one thing I do a lot of is work with my pictures. Photo Gallery was letting me do everything I wanted to do -- edit, print various sizes, print contact sheets, upload to get store prints, etc.  

Now, after finding and opening the (well-hidden) Photo Gallery file, I get the message that Photo Gallery has stopped working and that Windows will close it and get back to me. Then it shuts down.

My pictures seem to be here on my computer, but I can't do anything but edit and print a full size print. Not what I want to do.

I'm not a power user. I'm just a little old lady who likes to do email, ancestry, google, solitaire, free cell -- and family and travel photos. I'm afraid to even try to go back to Windows 8.1 (which I "upgraded" from because it wasn't friendly for this user) because I'm afraid of making things even worse.

End of rant.  I want Photo Gallery back!

Microsoft has updated information on "Windows Essentials" (which includes Photo Gallery as a component) to show it as available for Windows 10.  I have previously examined this page and Win10 was NOT listed.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-live/download-windows-essentials#wetabs=we2012

Now, after finding and opening the (well-hidden) Photo Gallery file, I get the message that Photo Gallery has stopped working and that Windows will close it and get back to me. Then it shuts down.

My pictures seem to be here on my computer, but I can't do anything but edit and print a full size print. Not what I want to do.

By "photo gallery file", are you referring to the program, or the photogallery database file?  You should not need to go looking for the latter.

I have played with Photo Gallery (actually, an older version of it from Windows Live Essentials 2011) on a friend's Win10 machine, and it seems to be working fine.

I downloaded Windows 10 on July 28. I have had nothing but problems . Between 2 and 12 duplicates of many photos. Any duplicate deleted will delete all copies and leave a non removable and non available photo entry. Also renaming or renumbering a photo will make it no longer available. Does not effect photos after August. I had about 70,000 photos with windows XP. When I went to Windows 7 pro, it reloaded to 107,000. At least I could delete the duplicates with no problem. When Windows 10 installed, I ended up with 307,000 photos. Today I have over 310,000 photos. Totally unmanageable. I do not recommend Windows 10 until they address this problem. I contacted customer service 8/12/2015 and was told it caused by a virus and after the virus was removed it would be resolved. Not happening! Be very careful. I have lost a lot of photos already. Any change to Collections,  Pictures, or Photo Gallery is also done to the others. I will try to resolve this again but will probably return to Windows 7 pro next week.

It seems unlikely that Win10 will duplicate your photos - they are just user files of no interest to Win10. 

Please explain how these "duplicates" appear on your machine - How are the duplicate files named?  Do the duplicates appear in the same or different folder than the pre-existing file?

Are you running the latest version of Essentials, ie. "Windows Essentials 2012"?

I have just resolved a so-called duplicate photos problems on another user's Win10 system, and it seem as though it is User Error.  He appears to have been importing the photos in a manner which created duplicates - he is a little foggy on his procedure so could not confirm precisely what he has been doing, but I suspect his duplicates have been there from well before Win10 came along.  We deleted duplicates (via Photo Gallery) and nothing untoward happened to the other copy(s) of the same file (which in his case had the identical file name, but in a different folder.)

It is no longer a problem now as all photos are deleted as well as Photo Gallery, Collections and Pictures. Help at Microsoft deleted Photo Gallery which deleted all other photos also. I was no longer able to download Windows Essentials 2012 as it was no longer supported. All my original photos were on backup discs but since they were saved as Photo Gallery, they are no longer readable. Yes all photo duplicates had the same name as the originals and all in the same folders. All photos were in Photo Gallery and also in Pictures. I don't know about Collections since it kept closing down on me. That computer became unusable. All photos are now in an older Dell with XP that is offline. I purchased a new HP with Windows 10 preinstalled on Sept 28. The preinstalled Windows 10 had different features and was not as easy to use as the downloaded Windows 10. ( Yesterday, Oct 16, McAfee said it would not protect Edge and replaced it with Internet Explorer.) The photo albums are designed for amateurs with small photo collections and minor touchup needs. I now only use my online computer for email, news and games. In a few months after Microsoft finishes debugging Windows 10, I will shop for a compatible professional photo app.