[jw232]

Windows Photo Gallery only shows the first frame of animated GIF images. Is this a problem or is it supposed to be like that?

[DaveA]

You need to view Gif's in a browser.

[Noyb]

http://blogs.msdn.com/pix/pages/faq.aspx#q12

Install Irfanview ... http://www.irfanview.com/
to replace Photo Gallery as your default Viewer n Editor ..
and you won't have this problem.

I can't even get Vista's Photo Gallery to open a gif, animated or otherwise.

[good grief]

Noyb

I'm interested in your recommendation to jw232 of installing Irfanview to replace Photo Gallery as default viewer and editor.

I tried installing Irfanview myself, but windows informed me it was incompatible with Vista, so I uninstalled it. I didn't try compatibility mode, as any attempts I have made with other programmes, resulted in a horribly over-inflated screen (presumably because my resolution is 1280x800, and it was doing it at 800x600?), so for purposes of photo editing etc. I didn't think that would work too well.

So, my question is, how did you get it to work with Vista with or without the bloated look?

Also, I can't understand why you can't at least view gifs in Photo Galley, because I can view them in mine even if, as DaveA says, you have to view them in the browser to see the animation effects. Not a whole lot of point of course, as you can't edit them without flattening them in Photo Gallery, hence my interest in Irfanview and other free programmes of that nature, but you should still be able to see them in there.

Thanks in advance

[Noyb]

Which version ?? ... Irfanview 4.0 went in great.
It's been updated to 4.1 .. But 4.1 has an annoying bug in the zoom .. so I'm waiting on a fix.

I don't understand .. Irfanview Bloated ???
I use Photoshop for advanced editing .. so no problem with gifs animated or other wise.
I didn't understand no gifs in Photo gallery at all ?? .. But there's a lot in Vista that disappoints me.

[Noyb]

Just noticed your wide screen setting of 1280x800 .. or is this just your monitor specs ??
A display setting of 800x600 (1.33 ratio) driving a wide screen (1.6 ratio) will result in a display 20% fatter than it should be.

1.6/1.33 = 1.20 (120%) width distortion ... is this what you're calling bloated ??

This perfect Circle/Square should look as such .. viewed with anything.

[good grief]

It was the latest version I tried (4.1), and it installed ok, but after a short time windows told me there was a compatibility problem, so I uninstalled it.
As I said in my previous post, I didn't try compatibility mode, because anything at all I've tried with that, bloated up images on the screen making it useless for editing. I'm taking it from your reply that you didn't have to use compatibility mode to run Irfanview, so I'm left wondering what I'm doing wrong.
Photoshop is out of the question for me at the present time, which is why I'm hunting for something that will work on my system to do the stuff Photo Studio 5.5 won't do.

The gifs in the gallery bit was referring to the part in your post where you said you couldn't even open a gif in windows Photo Gallery animated or otherwise.

Anyway, I don't want to highjack this thread from jw232, so I'll try looking into this some more, and maybe post another thread.

Thanks for your reply

[Noyb]

Didn't have to run Irfanview in a compatibility mode ???
Could it be that disabling Vista's UAC was one of the first things I did.

Photoshop Elements 6.0 is out now ..
Haven't installed it in my Vista HP boot drive yet, but it should be OK.
It does almost as much as Photoshop .. for a non-professional camera user ... for a whole lot less.

I think jw232's question was answered ... Photo Gallery has a handicap .. and doesn't work as good as XP's Image n Fax Viewer.

[good grief]

1280x800 is my screen resolution, and your circle inside your square look fine. It's just anything in compatibility mode that looks bloated. the image looks like when you've written something on a balloon and then inflated it. It's all spread out and pixellated (I think that's the right term).
It's probably just me being new to everything that's the problem. I may just not be setting everything up right. But I still don't know why Irfanview will run on your Vista, and not on mine.

[good grief]

Re the UAC, I'm beginning to wonder if that is indeed the problem. I have a post in the photo and imaging forum regarding GIMP, and the only thing fairnooks did differently that I can see, was disabling UAC as well.

I really don't understand why that would be a problem - why that would have an impact on (as far as I can see) totally un-related software. But then I'm so new to this that everything is a revelation...

[Noyb]

I don't see anything in the Irfanview Forum about problems with Vista.
http://en.irfanview-forum.de/vb/index.php
Did you set Irfan's .. View > Display Options > Fit to Window ?

You can go here .. http://en.irfanview-forum.de/vb/showthread.php?t=3
and get the older 4.0 version if the zoom bug bothers you.
(zoom in and you loose part of the pic temporarly)

Here's how I like to setup Irfanview .. http://2noyb.home.insightbb.com/
I replaced UAC with ... http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html

[good grief]

Thanks for those links Noyb.

When I pluck up the courage, I'll have a go at disabling UAC and see how I get on from there. Winpatrol looks interesting too.
Thanks for your help