programme files

[codswallop]

Yes it's me again,how can I open the prog file ie "Microsoft picture it" that I have on my external HDD There are other progs that I would like to open as well if this can be done.Thank you all once again you are giving an "old codger" lots of enjoyment.

[VHG]

Not sure what you mean.

Do you mean you have installed "Picture it" on your external hard drive and you now want to start it ?

If not that, what do you want to do?

To be honest it is NOT a good idea to install programs on an external hard drive, you are best installing them on the "normal" drive where Windows is installed (usualy "C").

There is no problem putting digital photos and other personal files on an external drive, just a problem putting PROGRAMS on an external drive.

[codswallop]

Hi VHG I have salvaged my HDD from my obsolete pc and installed it in a caddy which becomes an external HDD which has all the progs on it.I can get onto the Microsoft picture it prog but only get the list of files when I try to start it,if that makes sense.Thanks for your reply!

[VHG]

I am afraid what you are trying to do wont work.

When you install a program under Windows it updates a number of Windows system files so that when you start the program Windows knows what to do.

The problem is that you installed the program on the OTHER hard drive, and it is the version of Windows on THAT hard drive that knows how the program works, not the version of Windows on your "main" hard drive.

So, for example, when you try to start "Picture it" from your other drive, Windows (on your main drive) tries to start it, but because it was never installed on that copy of Windows it does not know what to do.

You will need to re-install any programs that are on the "other" hard drive again, so that the version of Windows on your "main" hard drive knows about them.

[codswallop]

That makes sense thanks

[codswallop]

PS it it possible to do that when the "other" drive was XP and the new one is Vista????

[rojash]

No, regardless of the operating system - any programs that you installed on the old drive BEFORE you made it external, will not be useable - simply because (a) they think they are on drive C (cos that's where they were installed to) and they're not, and (b) your current operating system will have no record of the installation or any additional files or registry changes that were made at the time of installation.

Switching a drive out to an external caddy is a great way to retain access to you data, but any software that was installed on it will need to be reinstalled under the new operating system.

[codswallop]

I'm not explaining myself again.As" Picture it" is originally an XP software item will it re-install onto my Vista? Thanks again everyone!

[rojash]

From (of all places!) the Guardian:

"Microsoft's Picture It! was included in the Microsoft Works suite and subsumed into the Microsoft Digital Image Suite. Microsoft discontinued it after adding most of the features to Windows Vista. However, your old CD could work: according to web reports, Picture It! 9 and 10 will work in Vista if you run it in XP compatibility mode and check the box "As Administrator".

Sadly, the very easy photo retouching features were not added to Vista, and I don't know of any other program that takes the same non-geeky approach. The closest may be an online Flash-based picture editor, Picnik. Otherwise, Paint.net is a good free picture editor for Windows, though it's in the traditional mould"

[codswallop]

Thanks again rojash full mof good info as usual.I thought that the Picture it came already installed I don't remember having a CD for it.It was 7 years ago!!!!

[rojash]

In that case, I recommend picasa or paint.net, both of which are free, and which I provided links to in an earlier post