Microsoft Paint, lost .. ? alternatives

[kriskwery]

I'm sure this was on my computer once! Would it have vanished when "Microsoft Office - 60 Day Trial" ended?

Can anyone recommend free photo manipulating software? I've downloaded PhotoScape which seems fine except for some reason my external hard drive doesn't recognise any changes I make to pix with it!

[Ethel]

Your Paint should still be there

Start - all programs - accessories

[kriskwery]

Quite right! Isn't it easy when you know how!! I did a search but it didn't find it so I assumed it had gone, either gobbled up by Microsoft or superseded in some way by PhotoScape. Also it isn't an opening option when right clicking as I thought it should be. Ah, computers, what a waste of a life! Thanks so much for your help.

[Buenchico]

If you're still looking for some decent image manipulation software, Kriskwery, there are several free programs which are well worth a look. (They're all far superior to Microsoft Paint).

The nearest thing to Photoshop is GIMP:
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html
It's a great program but it takes time to get to grips with it.

The best image viewing program is undoubtedly Irfanview. Many people simply use it for viewing their images but it can do much, much more:
http://www.irfanview.com/

However, for most 'amateur' uses, Serif Photoplus 6 is probably the real star of the show:
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/Phot oPlus/default.asp
(it's a full commercial program, which is available completely free. It's just an older version than the latest one, but most people don't need the extra features of the new version anyway).

Chris

[kriskwery]

Thanks, Chris, I'll give 'em all a look. Very kind of you to go to the trouble. After the obvious emails, surfing & banking, I probably use my computer more for photographs than anything else. Cheers.

[LeMarchand]

If you're familiar with Paint, an easy "next step" would be Paint.NET: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

If you don't already have .NET 2.0 or later, you will also need that (from Microsoft). Both are free downloads.