# Recommend a replacement for Picasa? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331 "2016-12-22T01:19:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/1 "2016-12-22T01:19:19Z")
My old laptop finally crapped out, so bye-bye Picasa, which wasn’t all that great anyway. Now I need a decent but simple desktop program for photos. Simple tools are all I need: crop, contrast, etc. Nothing complex like PhotoShop, just something I can upload my photos to and post them on FB or wherever. New laptop is not Apple. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/2 "2016-12-22T01:25:40Z")
Have you tried the native Photos app in Microsoft 10? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/3 "2016-12-22T01:55:52Z")
[Google Photos](https://photos.google.com/) is the replacement for Picasa. I’m still using Picasa 3.9 for organizing and Paint Shop Pro for editing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/4 "2016-12-22T03:43:34Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > Have you tried the native Photos app in Microsoft 10? No, I just picked up this laptop today and haven’t had much chance to explore. I suppose I should just give in and have the photos live online somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/5 "2016-12-22T04:13:27Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [Google Photos](https://photos.google.com/) is the replacement for Picasa. I’m still using Picasa 3.9 for organizing and Paint Shop Pro for editing. I’ll second this. In fact, you should find that your Picasa photos have been automatically transferred to Google Photos for you. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/6 "2016-12-22T06:29:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My old laptop finally crapped out, so bye-bye Picasa, which wasn’t all that great anyway. Now I need a decent but simple desktop program for photos. Simple tools are all I need: crop, contrast, etc. Nothing complex like PhotoShop, just something I can upload my photos to and post them on FB or wherever. New laptop is not Apple. I must be the only person on this board who uses PhotoScape. But I really like it. It’s simple, but relatively powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/7 "2016-12-22T06:57:30Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [Google Photos](https://photos.google.com/) is the replacement for Picasa. I’m still using Picasa 3.9 for organizing and Paint Shop Pro for editing. …Google Photos is the online replacement for online Picasa: but it doesn’t replace the Picasa client (which lives on your computer and has also been discontinued.) Check out the Faststone range of products: their image viewer isn’t bad…but I wouldn’t call it a Picasa replacement. You could try Infanview which is an image editor, but not really an image manager. Phototheca 2 does the sort of image management stuff Picasa does, but not the editing. Unfortunately there really isn’t anything on the market that does what Picasa did so well. I still have it on my computer despite looking around for a replacement when Google decided to discontinue it. Professionally I use Lightroom and Photoshop, paying the photographer creative cloud subscription at $10.00 per month. But that might be over kill for you. But Lightroom is awesome: and well worth the money on its own. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/8 "2016-12-22T14:00:38Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > No, I just picked up this laptop today and haven’t had much chance to explore. I suppose I should just give in and have the photos live online somewhere. Give it a try - it’s a [simple photo editing tool](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/microsoft-photos/9wzdncrfjbh4) just like you say you want - cropping, contrast adjustment, straightening, etc. If you want to back your images up to the cloud, you can upload them to OneDrive, Google Photos, Amazon … wherever you want. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/9 "2016-12-22T14:06:10Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …Google Photos is the online replacement for online Picasa: but it doesn’t replace the Picasa client (which lives on your computer and has also been discontinued.) Yes, this. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Unfortunately there really isn’t anything on the market that does what Picasa did so well. I still have it on my computer despite looking around for a replacement when Google decided to discontinue it. And this. I really like Picasa and still use it all the time - and I can still use it to directly upload albums to Google Photos. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Professionally I use Lightroom and Photoshop, paying the photographer creative cloud subscription at $10.00 per month. But that might be over kill for you. But Lightroom is awesome: and well worth the money on its own. I also have the whole suite of Adobe stuff, plus a couple different versions of Elements, and most of the time it’s just overkill unless I need to do some heavy-duty editing. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/10 "2016-12-22T16:10:14Z")
You can’t get Picasa from Google anymore, but you can get it from filehippo. I recently downloaded it after a clean install on my Windows 7 laptop and it works fine. You’d have to check to see if it’s compatible with W10. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/11 "2016-12-22T18:23:04Z")
[irfanview.com](http://irfanview.com) very easy to use ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/12 "2016-12-22T23:16:25Z")
Since I’m going to have to recreate all of the albums, I guess I’ll just go with Google or Windows. What a PITA. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/13 "2016-12-23T00:16:48Z")
I have been dutifully ignoring all the requests on my Mac to dump Picasa for whatever replacement they’re flogging. Picasa works fine for my purposes, enhancing and cropping images for printing out photos or posting them online. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/14 "2016-12-23T00:47:21Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Since I’m going to have to recreate all of the albums, I guess I’ll just go with Google or Windows. What a PITA. You shouldn’t have to recreate your albums from Picasa if you move to Google Photos. I didn’t. My albums were all preserved. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/15 "2016-12-23T01:56:29Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > You shouldn’t have to recreate your albums from Picasa if you move to Google Photos. I didn’t. My albums were all preserved. That’s been my experience as well. As I alluded to earlier, the app is still available for download and retains the functionality (like emailing and uploading to Google Photos), but they’re never going to update it. I’ve been using Picasa for many years for basic image manipulation and organization and I don’t think there’s another free app that has quite the same set of tools. If I want to “mess with” an image beyond Picasa’s capability I just right-click, open with Photoshop Elements, and go on from there. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/16 "2016-12-23T16:00:53Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > You shouldn’t have to recreate your albums from Picasa if you move to Google Photos. I didn’t. My albums were all preserved. They’re preserved as albums, but the album titles are gone, replaced by dates. Who searches by date? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/17 "2016-12-23T17:54:05Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > They’re preserved as albums, but the album titles are gone, replaced by dates. Who searches by date? I don’t know what to say, then. My album titles were all preserved, too. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/18 "2016-12-23T20:51:24Z")
It is all about the young now IMO. “Any picture I take I want one button to post, blurs and all, every picture, even at monster size to a place that will post to FB, Tw, Ig, Email list for all 3876 of my friends who have monster connection and will never look at them but NEED to have them there… right now… And I am too lazy to cull them & resize them and put up just the XX% that are worth anything… That would make them going up too late for my friends to get the full impact of just how great I am.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-replacement-for-picasa/775331/19 "2016-12-23T21:15:08Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I don’t know what to say, then. My album titles were all preserved, too. It may be because I had saved all of the albums to an external drive. When I cleaned up the old laptop, I deleted all files and most of the programs off of it. Perhaps Google sees these as generic files. Dunno, but it’s not a deal breaker.