If you love to share photos and files online, you’ve probably tried a few different services—with features like online photo albums, privacy settings, drag-and-drop uploading, and photo printing.

You start off with one service, then try another, then you join the one your work friends use, then try one with a cool photo organizer, then one of your services shuts down (for example: AOL Photos, which is about to close its doors, or Sony ImageStation, which spun down earlier this year) and migrates you to another company’s service which is completely different.

Suddenly you’re using half a dozen sites and spend more time messing with account information than having fun. 

Ouch!

Ironically, wanting all those features and options to make your life easy actually makes your life really complex. Today, most people aren’t looking for another whiz-bang doodad, they want to simplify their lives online.

Now, how specifically does Windows Live help you do that for photos and files?

The new Windows Live Photo Gallery (beta) plays a big part.

Photo Gallery is one of several free programs from Windows Live, which automatically finds and organizes photos across your hard drive (by year, month, or day, by folder or by tags you add). There’s great photo editing support. Plus, you can easily publish your photos online to share with the people you choose. The service can use your existing Messenger or Hotmail account, so no extra passwords to remember!

Here’s what it looks like to publish photos online using Windows Live Photo Gallery (beta):

Here’s what a Windows Live online photo album looks like:

But… what about sharing files other than photos?

What about sharing the flyer for my sister’s choir group recital, or creating a public archive for my soccer league’s monthly newsletters? If I’m going on a trip, but I have to work, how can I bring the files I need with me?

Well, you could use e-mail to throw files around as attachments, but that gets complicated.

What you really need is an online hard drive to share your stuff with the people you choose (as well as yourself!) from any Internet-connected computer.

Windows Live SkyDrive does all that. You get 5GB of free storage and can easily upload files through drag and drop then share them with whoever you choose—and again, it works with your Messenger or Hotmail account so management is simple.

Problems solved!

Here’s what it looks like to use SkyDrive’s drag-and-drop file upload interface:

At the end of the day, if you waste too much time futzing around with different photo and file sharing accounts (or if your service is being discontinued) consider Windows Live. You get easy-to-use photo sharing, 5GB of storage, and a suite of services integrated with a single account—all free!

Simple drag-and-drop, plus photo album sharing makes switching from your current services easy. Although, if you don’t mind multiple accounts, Windows Live works with other services as well (for example: Photo Gallery publishes to Flickr.com and other sites). So, use whatever works best for you.

Let’s keep sharing simple and fun.

- Ian Tien, Senior Product Manager, Windows Live