Windows 10 - Restore the old photo import

This post explains how to restore the old import routine in Windows 10. This tip comes courtesy of Mike Lang.

With Windows 10, Microsoft brought out a new Photo app called 'Photos'. They also hid the old Photo import. The problem with the new Photo app is that it it makes it very difficult to import photos into the folder of your choice. It doesn't give you the option to name the folders. It lumps all your photos by dates.

This post is slightly more technical than most. It explains how to create a shortcut to the old import program. If anyone doesn't feel confident doing it, we can do it for you at our BAY Centre technical clinics every Friday 11am - 1pm & 1.30pm - 3.30pm (£2 per session which includes a hot drink and biscuits).

We are going to create a 'shortcut' on the desktop which will point to the old import program.



1) Move your cursor to a clear area of your desktop and click your right mouse button (or press the right button on the pad). A menu will appear in a small window (see image below. Yours may be slightly different)

2) move your cursor down to the 'New' option and click your left mouse button.

 (From here on I will call clicking the left mouse button or pressing the left pad button as left-click and clicking the right mouse button or pressing the right pad button as right-click.)

Another menu will appear -

3) move your cursor across to the 'Shortcut' option and left-click on it.

Another window will appear as below -

4) In the window above, in the 'Type the location of the item' box, we are going to type (or copy and paste) the following characters

  %SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe "%SystemDrive%\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer\PhotoAcq.dll",PhotoAndVideoAcquire

It must be typed in exactly as shown here with the capital letters and any spaces {there is a space after 'rundll32.exe' & 'Windows' and 'Photo'})

It is probably better to cut and paste the whole line into the box labelled 'Type the location of the item' as seen in the next image -

5) After typing in the characters (or copying & pasting them) click on the button labelled 'Next'. Windows will check that the program can be found. It will show an error message if there is a problem saying 'The File xxxxxx cannot be found (where xxxxx is what you typed in).

If Windows is happy with the characters the following window will appear -

6) It is asking for a name to be given to the new shortcut. It tries to help by suggesting a name but 'rundll32.exe isn't very meaningful so replace it by typing something better like below -

After entering a name for the shortcut, click on the button labelled 'Finish'. You will then find a shortcut on your desktop looking something like this -

In another post, I will run through how to use the import program.

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('Cartoon Photographer' image courtesy of [iosphere] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)