If you’re looking for a powerful photo manager, why don’t you try one that could fully integrate into Windows in order to work seamlessly with Microsoft’s operating system?

It’s called Windows Live Photo Gallery and is part of the same Windows Live software suite that also comprises Windows Live Messenger and a few other tools.

The main advantage of the application is that it can be downloaded in a second and works pretty smooth, without eating up the CPU or the RAM.

The interface is very pleasant, exactly the thing we’d expect from a software giant like Microsoft. Clean and shiny looks, with large thumbnails that let you browse easily among the photos stored on your computer. All photos are organized in albums, while double clicking a photo opens up the editing feature.

Editing an image isn’t too difficult in Windows Live Photo Gallery, but don’t expect to do the same things as in Photoshop for example. There are only the basic effects, plus a few operations such as crop and color adjustment, so nothing too fancy or complicated.

What we missed the most during our test was the select tool that provides such a simple thing, that of letting you select just a small part of a photo.

The ace up its hand is definitely the way it manages to display photos and the way it interacts with the user.

Those who want the best of the program will have to use the people tag and the geotagging functions, thus benefiting the most from its great features.

All in call, Windows Live Photo Gallery is one of the greatest software solutions in this category, and the fact that it’s free makes it even more special.