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Microsoft has some software that not many people know about. I think Microsoft's Photo Story 3 is their best one that everyone should know about but hardly anyone does. It is in very many ways similar to Windows Movie Maker that comes installed on XP and Vista machines. However, Photo Story 3 makes the task of making a picture slide show for your computer or to be burned to a DVD so much faster and easier than anything before.
Available for download at no cost from Microsoft's website, Photo Story works on both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Once you have it installed and you run Photo Story 3 it asks what you want to do: Begin a new story, edit a project, or play a story. I chose to make a new story. 
Then the program allows you to import your photos. You can mass add entire folders if you wish, it does not limit you to one at a time additions. Once you have them added you will have several options such as transitions titles etc. It even has an option to cut off the edges where you want in case the picture wouldn't fit nicely on a standard 4:3 ratio television set. 
After you have finished your transitions the next step is to add narrations to each slide which you can record with a microphone, or you can add background music to the show. 
The last step is to save it where you want it, whether it is on your hard drive or burned to a DVD, it will let you here. 
Thats it, now you can play back your slide show on your DVD player or just in Windows Media Player. While there are not too many advanced options for real creativeness, it is a basic program for those who need to make a project real quickly. 
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