What is best Programme to help me restore old photo's

[Treetotal]

Thanks - I don't think I would have explicitly agreed to advertising-type things, but I now wonder if as a newcomer I might have gone for a default 'typical installation' setting which included them, whereas I would probably have preferred an 'expert' option which lets you pick and choose - if it was offered.

The things I found particularly unnecessary were anything to do with Adobe cloud services, and the Organizer - do you know if there's any way to avoid these?

Unless you use it...don't open the organiser just the Editor Arthur.
Carol

[arthurk]

The things I found particularly unnecessary were anything to do with Adobe cloud services, and the Organizer - do you know if there's any way to avoid these?

Unless you use it...don't open the organiser just the Editor Arthur.
Carol

That would be an option. From looking around online I gather that it can't be removed - but even if you don't use it, it's still going to be taking up disk space (EDIT: and possibly running in the background?).

I understand what Biggles50 says about Photoshop being the industry standard program, but that doesn't mean it's the best option for us non-professionals. Apart from the hated Organizer and Creative Cloud that it put on my computer, the only thing I can think of that it offers which I can't get in IrfanView or FastStone (both free, and much easier to use) is support for layers - and in the time I was using Photoshop Elements I never managed to get to grips with them.

While exploring earlier today, however, I came across another free program which does support layers - PhotoPad from NCH Software. I found some quite good reviews, so I thought I'd have a look. It's normally paid-for, but there's a separate link on the site to download a free version for personal use. It also seems to be available in the Microsoft Store.

[Ian Nelson]

NCH Software will invade your computer and bombard you to buy its other apps and services.  It appears to be a friendly Australian company with lots of free offers, but if you Uninstall it you will need extra vigilance to remove loads of extras you didn't expect to find.

[arthurk]

I've found other mentions of this kind of thing with regard to NCH, but I don't know how up to date they are. This is what their website has to say:

https://www.nch.com.au/software/safety-guarantee.html

One of the sites I use quite a lot when looking for software is Gizmo's Freeware, and they usually flag up unwanted programs etc, but in this case they don't seem to (so long as you use the link for the free version). This is their review of PhotoPad:

https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/photopad-photo-editor.htm

I haven't got round to installing it yet, so might hold off for a bit. Further comments welcome.

[petesdragon]

Just downloading GIMP to try..I have one photograph of my Parents whom died 50 years ago, so wish me luck
Peter

[guest189040]

Another one that I have on my Laptop and we use in our Photography Group is Pixbuilder.

It is free but I downloaded it from WNSoft and did not have any spurious add on, but like most free software do read the splash screens carefully to see if you are installing unwated add ons.

Pixbuilder is simpler than Gimp and has the tools you need.

I have on my Laptop:-

Photoshop
Lightroom
Gimp
Irfanview
Pixbuilder

With the last three all being free.

Suggest that you download each of the free ones and have a play with them.

If you get stuck you should easily find online video tutorials

[Treetotal]

My Daughter is an amateur photographer and is delighted with "Lightroom" and has shared info about what it is useful for. I believe she pays a monthly sub for this.
Carol

[arthurk]

Another one that I have on my Laptop and we use in our Photography Group is Pixbuilder.

It is free but I downloaded it from WNSoft and did not have any spurious add on, but like most free software do read the splash screens carefully to see if you are installing unwated add ons.

I always try to find out a bit about software publishers before I use their products. The WNSoft website doesn't give a contact address, or even say what country they are in - nor are there any clues in the privacy policy, or any obvious T&Cs which state which country's laws apply. A WHOIS check indicates that the wnsoft.com domain was registered by someone in Russia.

It might be OK, but I'm afraid all of this makes me rather cautious.

[guest189040]

Another one that I have on my Laptop and we use in our Photography Group is Pixbuilder.

It is free but I downloaded it from WNSoft and did not have any spurious add on, but like most free software do read the splash screens carefully to see if you are installing unwated add ons.

I always try to find out a bit about software publishers before I use their products. The WNSoft website doesn't give a contact address, or even say what country they are in - nor are there any clues in the privacy policy, or any obvious T&Cs which state which country's laws apply. A WHOIS check indicates that the wnsoft.com domain was registered by someone in Russia.

It might be OK, but I'm afraid all of this makes me rather cautious.

It is wise to be careful yet I am only one of about ten of us in our Photography Group who have downloaded the software and have used it without issue.

A good Anti Viral software check and CCleaner will remove or flag up any dubious files/apps

Wnsoft are part of the web.com Group whoever they might happen to be.