I have gotten tried of using CD for picture backups.
You could put the names on the face of the pictures.
You can do this with Irfanview.
Irfanview

Some recommend USB Plugin. Some are called Flash Drives.
Other members will know what's best to buy.

You can go the more expensive way and use a Exterior
hard drive like Maxtor 3 One Touch. It takes a bit of
getting used to.
Like everything you have to learn how to use it. Like
learning how to Format it in Administrator Tools.
The way to delete the exterior drive was missing on mine.
No updates for windows xp, just vista.
If you have Vista and dialup the updates may take forever.

You can also 'write' on the back of the photo. To do that right click on either the image in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or on the file itself. Click Properties, click Summary at the top then you can use either the Simple or Advanced tab and enter your data.

You might be amazed at the amount of data already entered there.

Thanks so much for your replies. I really don't want to add any more programs or an exterior hard drive. By clicking on the image from the Picture and Fax viewer, then clicking on the Paint program, I am able to type or write the names on the picture itself, but would really rather not deface the picture like that, though I have done some that way.

owbist - I just tried clicking on the image, then properties, then Summary and have done a few. Now i need to know, if I copy these to a CD will that information I have typed in show up as a picture caption? Not on the picture itself? Perhaps I need to do a sample CD and find out, eh?

Thanks again for the infomation. I learn new things every day.

Gerry once you have entered your data on the 'back' it is there forever - or until altered or removed. Anyone can make amendments of course, it is not protected, not that it needs to be in normal situations.

To view the data anyone will need to follow the same steps you did when you entered the details.

Thanks again. From now on when I add pictures to My Pictures folder, I will use this procedure. Old family photos I have stored in a "Family Tree" folder, I will work on as I have time. Nothing more frustrating than not being able to ID some old ancestor!

Yes Gerry, how sad that so few people way back when never wrote the details on the backs of those glorious old black and white photos. I had/have the same problem and a few will never now be identified because I am now part of the senior generation of the families. The needed information has gone with all the previous older generation. Are any of your oldies damaged in any way?

owbist - Yes, I have 2 or 3 that are damaged - a couple have had rips, one actually has a shoe print on it. My next computer project will be to learn how do touch-ups on those. I have been able to ID all of them so far. Perhaps you know what program I'll need for that?

Gerry if you have a scanner you could scan the damaged ones and send them to me to try fixing. I am no expert but I enjoy those kinds of tasks. Just send one if you like so you can see how it turns out.

I use Corel PhotoPaint but any better photo editing program will do the job. There is quite a learning curve though. When I started it would take me 40 minutes to swap a head, now I can do it in few minutes and the result is much better than my early days - mostly LOL. I have linked Gimp below, this is a free photo editing program you might like to try. You should grab the manual as well as the program perhaps.

If you decide to send any please scan as bitmaps (bmp) rather than jpg and create a file of 2 megabytes or more so we have something good to start on. You can send it to earoles at canada.com - remove spaces and change 'at' to @ of course.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gimp photo editor