Labs

Photo Explorer's introductory help page explains that the program works like Windows Explorer but is tailored specifically to multimedia files, so if you're working with photographs, you see thumbnail images rather than filenames. Although this might have been a valid distinction when the first version of Photo Explorer

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hit the streets, now that Windows Explorer can do this it's pertinent to ask what it offers users of Windows XP. In fact, it does have a few nice additional features.

If you don't already have a photo-manipulation package, Photo Explorer includes basic functions such as converting between file formats, adjusting contrast, resampling and red-eye removal. Many of the actions can be applied to multiple files at once. Another nice facility is automatic file renaming. You select a group of files and supply the criteria for renaming them. Options include re-ordering numbers in filenames, changing one text string to another and including the time and date the shot was taken in the filename.

The slideshow creation feature is also useful. In addition to seeing the show onscreen, which you can do with Windows, you can write it to a Video CD or DVD that is playable in a domestic DVD player.