Windows 7 - deleting original pictures

Asked By oppiman

02-Nov-09 04:46 AM

Hello,
the way WLPG treats "original pictures" is not bad.
But how to I clean up my "original pictures" folder?
Simply deleting the oldest pictures is not a good way.
I found that originals do not get deleted automatically when I delete the
corresponding picture in the gallery.

It would be nice to have at least 2 features:
1. Delete original on demand with a click. This button should be in the
somwhere in the file or edit menu in the gallery.
2. Cleanup, automatically delete all originals where no corresponding
picture in any gallery exists anymore.

The other question is: How many pictures can be in the originals folder?
I assume the 20000 file limit from live sync applies here as well.

02-Nov-09 05:16 PM

Go to File/Options in WLPG and on the General tab you can change the way
Originals are handled. The default is to never delete them. You can change this
to 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, or 1 year.
The suggestion for a feature change can be submitted at http://feedback.live.com
The limitation for quantity of files in the folder is up to the operating system
and is not constrained as Live Sync is.
http://ask-leo.com/is_there_a_limit_to_what_a_single_folder_or_directory_can_hold.html

-steve



--
Stephen Boots
MVP Windows Live
Windows Live OneCare/Live Mesh/MSE Forums Moderator
sboots@mvps.org

03-Nov-09 03:29 AM

Thanks Steve,

but the simple deletion just by time is not what I need.
The orphans are my "problem". If you delete photos in WLPG they do not get
deleted in "original images"
I guess I will write a small app that matches the files in the gallery against
the files under originals.

And I do use Live Sync with WLPG. One of the main advantages of WLPG is that
it can sync the originals as well.
So I am bound to the 20000 files limit,as the originals folder gets synced
like a normal folder. Right?

oppiman

03-Nov-09 04:45 AM

Hi, oppiman.
Yes, I know that the deletions do not get mirrored in Original files (now that I
checked into it - thanks to your post! <g>). What I found interesting is that
they will *never* get deleted from there by default. I had never considered this
at al, thinking only about the changed files vs. original.
I like your suggestion about an option to define what to do about this, hence
the reason I posted the feedback.live.com link for you. There is no other
official feedback path that I am aware of.
Yes, a folder can only have 20K files in it for Live Sync. So, I assume that
this would apply here, too.
-steve





--
Stephen Boots
MVP Windows Live
Windows Live OneCare/Live Mesh/MSE Forums Moderator
sboots@mvps.org

03-Nov-09 11:47 AM

Thanks Steve.
I am now working on a small program that will find all orphan original
images and delete them.
When I have a working beta, I will post it here.

(it will be awfully slow, because it will crawl through all gallery folders,
read each image unique identifier and match it against all original files)

04-Nov-09 06:43 AM

I got something working.
Out of my over 26000 images and over 2600 originals it found that about 400
originals are orphans.
The tool is still beta, but works.
It will find all orphans and move them to a backup folder.
If you want to test just send me an email.

Warning! This tool was developed by me with best intentions and it seems to
work fine.
But I cannot be held responsible if you mess up you data with it.
You should always have backups before you start fumbling with this tool.

oppiman

04-Nov-09 07:20 PM

Thanks for the offer, oppiman. I will pass for now, but you have taught me something
about WLPG that I was not aware of. :-)
-steve

30-Nov-09 08:54 PM

I do not know if Windows Photo Gallery is the same as Windows Live Photo
Gallery but the option you refer to does not work in my system, though
activated.

I would like to get rid of duplicates and wonder if there is any advice on
this, please?

ron

01-Dec-09 04:46 AM

Windows Photo Gallery is what comes included with Vista, Windows Live Photo
Gallery is available from http://download.live.com and is an upgrade to the
program shipped with Vista.
Duplicate handling is best done with a 3rd party program, though WLPG will allow
you to sort you library in various ways to show if you have the same photo in
multiple locations - true duplicates.
-steve



--
Stephen Boots
MVP Windows Live
Windows Live OneCare/Live Mesh/MSE Forums Moderator
sboots@mvps.org

01-Dec-09 02:51 PM

Dup Detector freeware version 3.0
http://www.keronsoft.com/dupdetector.html

Find Duplicate Pictures 6.82
http://download.cnet.com/Find-Duplicate-Pictures/3000-2191_4-10913313.html
Free to try (30-day trial); $39.95 to buy

01-Dec-09 07:29 PM

thanks.

ron

01-Dec-09 08:59 PM

YW

02-Dec-09 12:34 AM

another question about this silly MPG program - how can I turn off the
repeated security dialogue box?  As the files open for uploading to, for
example, Facebook, this dialogue box keeps popping up.  and the area for
annoying!

cheers

ron

02-Dec-09 04:52 AM

MPG program? What security dialog and what is the exact text? Upload to Facebook
requires a plug-in. I do not get any security dialogs when uploading to Facebook
or Windows Live Photos when using Windows Live Photo Gallery.
-steve



--
Stephen Boots
MVP Windows Live
Windows Live OneCare/Live Mesh/MSE Forums Moderator
sboots@mvps.org

16-Feb-10 02:45 AM

I wrote a quick and dirty tool to remove orphaned originals from WLPG.
Let me know if you wanna try.