Picture import

Hi, Reiler. I've had exactly the same problem as you. There's nothing wrong with your setup. Don't use Autoplay. Instead, launch Windows Live Photo Gallery. Then, and only then, connect your camera/USB drive.
Choose File> Import from a camera or scanner
Select the required device when a list is displayed (e.g. Removable Disk (H)
Click on Import
Choose Review, organize, and group items to import
Click on More Options ...
For Import To: click on Browse ... and select (or create) the required folder you want to copy the photos to
For folder Name: select Name
For File name: select Name
Click OK
In the Import Photos and Videos window, click on Next
Move the Adjust groups slider to divide your photos into separate sessions for each day's filming by reducing the amount of time allotted to each group (I chose 1 hour so I could split up photos filmed at three separate locations in a particular day)
Untick Select all (very important!!!)
Tick the group of photos you want to import
Click on Enter a name, and type the name you want to apply to all the photos, e.g. Central Park
Click on View all X items to see thumbnails of all the photos in the chosen group, and untick any that you don't want to import
Make sure again that you've only got the required group ticked
Click on Import
The photos will then be imported to your chosen folder and will be numbered sequentially, e.g. Central Park 001, Central Park 002, etc.
Just like XP !!!
Trust me - it gets easier with practice!

DeaconFrost said:

I'm just taking a quick stab here, but it sounds to me like you had a third party app built-in to XP to handle that. I've never seen XP do that by default, and I've been working around photographers for a few years now.

No it sounds like he was just using the standard Windows picture and scanner import program in Windows XP Accessories and was also basically the same in Windows 98 -- not a third party app. It was much quicker than Picasa and much easier to use than the goofy Windows 7 picture import program.

The Windows 7 import with their autoplay forces you to restart the program every time you change folders to save pictures or any other Import Settings. It's downright awful. When you do laboriously get to the choosing of a folder it chops off the view of the folder so short you cant read it. Win7 Import is garbage.

Isn't there a simple free import program anymore? I don't do much with pictures, but I take a lot and need to save them in various folders to go with 250 different site files.

So far two weeks with Windows 7 is pretty awful. It doesn't start any faster than XP, and it doesn't shut down any faster. Outlook crashes, Hibernation doesn't work -- gives the blue screen of death every time, sleep crashes it about half the time. What is it with MicroworSt and their refusal to beta test? I didn't have a choice about using it, because the big boys at work made the call. I suspect most of these problems are due to corporate bloatware they make us use and it is off topic.

Anyone have a simple quick picture import program that allows you to easily choose file names for pictures and easily pick folders to save them? And to choose which pics to transfer where? The old program from Win 98 and XP Accessories was simple quick and free. Is there a way I can transfer it from an old WinXP PC?

I don't want to just copy and paste, as I need groups of hundreds of pictures to start with site names and I'm not about to rename them individually. The old XP Accessories program let you give a name XXX then you got XXX 001 XXX 002 etc. in whatever folder I choose to save it. Often I would get a CD with hundreds of pictures with file names using characters my corporate network prohibits for uploads. I would then copy them to an SD card, pop that in a Card Reader and use the XP Accessories Picture and Scanner Program to import and it would let me rename them and I could get them XXXX 0012 through XXXX 1056.

jrdaddykins said:

launch Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Sounds like a possible answer, but I don't know where you get Windows Live Photo Gallery. Is it a freebie somewhere or with Win7, or a purchased add on?