Microsoft developed Windows Vista in part to make it easier for people to manage their digital photos. Now it has released beta software that's trying to refine that experience further.

Windows XP leaves much to be desired with photo management, Mike Nash, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Windows Product Management, said Wednesday in a talk here at the InfoTrends Digital Imaging conference. On the list of gripes: XP lacks abilities to edit, archive, search, tag and edit images; it can't support the higher-end but unprocessed "raw" photos; transferring images to PCs is "slow and cumbersome"; and "color management was sketchy at best."

Windows Vista is designed to fix these shortcomings, Nash said. But newer software called Windows Live, in public beta testing since earlier this month, is geared to expand photo abilities even more--in part through improving what the PC can do on its own and in part what it can do with the Internet.

"The notion of live services is a critical part of Microsoft's strategy," Nash said. "Our mindset is that the value proposition of Windows Vista is a combination of the core operating system and those online services."

Of course, XP isn't the only comparison to Vista that can be made. Apple's Mac OS X includes many photo-friendly features already.

Dave Block, Windows senior product manager, demonstrated the photo-related components of the Windows Live software. Windows Live Photo Gallery augments Windows Vista Photo Gallery with the ability to sharpen images and to view a histogram that shows an image's distribution of light and dark tones.

The software also adds the ability to upload photos with two mouse clicks to Windows Live Spaces, an online site for blogging and sharing photos. Microsoft doesn't envision the ability to export photos to other sites such as Flickr or Shutterfly, Block added in an interview.

Windows Live Gallery, part of a suite that includes other components for blogging, mail and other tasks, takes over from the Vista Photo Gallery when installed, Block said.

Microsoft may not think as much about photo handling with Windows XP, but there's one feature from the earlier operating system that Microsoft is adding back into Vista as a result of customer feedback. In XP, the photo-import process let people select which photos they wanted to transfer to the PC and which photos they wanted to delete or leave on a camera. With Vista, it's an all-or-nothing affair.

"A goal with Vista was to make photo import really simple. But we got feedback that people wanted it to be more highly functional," Block said.

Windows Live Photo Gallery shouldn't be thought of as what Vista's photo management ought to have been, Block argued. "It's adding new features. Don't think of it as a patch," he said.

During the photo import process, on either the standard and augmented Vista, people can tag their images with labels such as photo locations and subject names. Adding such "metadata" is a crucial part to enabling software and therefore computer users to search for particular photos.

Vista simplifies some of the divergent standards for photo metadata, said InfoTrends analyst Ed Lee. There are still problems, however.

For example, image-editing powerhouse Adobe Systems also offers software that lets people tag photos and rate them on a scale of one to five stars. Adobe and Microsoft software can read the primary photo tags the other company's software has written. But the companies take an incompatible approach for subtags that provide more elaborate detail. A "flower" primary tag could be expanded by adding a "rose" subtag, for example.

"There's no agreed upon industry standard," Block said. "Both implementations are good; they're just not compatible."

He didn't have a projection for when the companies might work out their subtagging differences.

The Windows Live beta software can be downloaded from Microsoft. It's available for Windows XP and Vista, but it requires the installation of other components for search and color management for XP, and of SQL 2005 Compact Edition for both operating systems. 

Might sales of Office 2007 be outpacing sales of Windows Vista?

Since early this year, Microsoft has been issuing periodic sales updates on Windows Vista. The most recent Vista sales pronouncement (released by the company at the end of July) was that Microsoft had sold 60 million copies of Vista.

The Office team hasn’t been talking sales figures — at least not until now. But according to information shared during a recent briefing with certain members of the French tech press, Microsoft allegedly has sold 70 million copies of Office 2007 to date. (Thanks to LiveSide.Net for the link.)

I’ve asked Microsoft to verify whether the 70 million number is real and was provided by its officials this week. No word back yet.

The official comment, via a Microsoft spokesperson: “It’s not our policy to confirm the license figures.� Since Microsoft is not denying the validity of the info., my take is someone with Microsoft France spilled the beans.

I’m betting the same caveat applies to Office as Vista: These are copies sold to the channel, not necessarily to customers. But still… If these numbers are right, means Office 2007 may be outselling Vista. At the very least, it’s keeping up, neck and neck, with it.

Just this week, market researchers wtih NPD noted that Office 2007  was selling like crazy through the shrink-wrapped/retail channel. Microsoft officials have said that 80 percent of Vista sales are coming through OEM preloads. That percentage for Office is substantially lower, but Microsoft has been working on programs to try to convince more PC makers to preload its Office 2007 suite.

Have you upgraded to Office 2007 without moving to Vista? Any plans to do so?

In a concession that isn't going to earn Microsoft any trust in the larger computing community, Microsoft has publicly admited its will issue and install "silent" updates to its Windows Update software on end-users computers, even in some cases where users have specifically chosen not to have Microsoft software updates downloaded and installed automatically. The updates in question are revisions to Microsoft's Windows Update feature, rather than patches or changes to any other component of the Windows operating system; Microsoft claims these silent updates are necessary if Windows Update is to continue functioning as users expect.

Although Microsoft is not explicitly apologizing for updating software on users' computers without their explicit permission, Microsoft's Nick White writes in the Windows Vista team blog: "[W]e do recognize that we should have been clearer in our explanation of this process earlier in the game."

According to Microsoft, Windows Update does not automatically update itself if users have selected not check for automatic updates. However, if users have configured Windows Update to either check for updates and prompt the user to download and install them, or automatically download updates and prompt the user for permission to install them, Windows Update may automatically download and install updates to itself. According to Microsoft, this self-update is necessary to enable Windows Update to continue to poll for updated software; thus, the self-update is necessary to carry out the users' configured wishes to poll for other updated Windows software.

However, some information contradicts Microsoft's description of the self-update procedure. Windows Secrets says it has seen Windows Update update its own software even when users have Windows Update disabled, and Microsoft's Nick White wrote the self-updates happen "regardless of whether the user has enabled automatic checking, download and/or installation of updates."

Windows Update is widely used by consumers and small businesses as a mechanism to make sure they have the most recent Windows software components; however, it is not widely used in large organizations or enterprises, which use centralized software management tools to control software installed on enterprise computers.

The concern over Windows Update's self-upgrading feature is two-fold: one concern is that it presents yet another possible vector for attack: if worm writers or other malware authors can find a way to take advantage of this automatic behavior, they may be able to compromise users' PCs. The second concern is perhaps more troubling to Microsoft: despite the company's much publicized dedication to resolving security issues within Microsoft Windows over the last several years, and their commitment to publicly document Windows features and enable users to control their own computers, the company never disclosed this self-updating functionality. At the very least, it's egg on the software giant's face.

Windows Vista was welcomed by many PC gamers as it was made specially for providing a good graphical interface. But just like any other Microsoft product, it had some issues, especially regarding the virtual memory with some games. GamesIndustry.biz spoke to Microsoft, who confirmed that the forthcoming Vista update would address these problems.

A spokesperson from Microsoft said to GamesIndustry.biz, “As developers harness the new graphics capabilities in Windows Vista, some changes in how Windows Vista manages video memory have resulted in sporadic issues in graphically taxing games with high-end video cards. Working closely with our hardware partners, we have developed a fix which is currently available online. The current plan is that it will include the update which addresses the potential virtual memory issues.”

Last week, Microsoft had come out with a hotfix for Vista. The hotfix is basically an update that is undergoing testing but is not officially recommended unless a user is severely affected. However, the Microsoft spokesperson mentioned that they are planning to deliver the Vista SP1 by the first quarter of 2008.

It seems that PC gamers who use Vista will have to wait for a long time to get the update!