Think of your hard drive (usually called C:\) as being structured like an upside down tree. There's a root folder (main trunk) , then branches that come off the trunk, then branches that come off the branches, etc. All this can be seen (and accessed) by using Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer, the browser). The branches are all called folders, used to be called directories.

Programs/apps like Picasa and others don't control files, don't move files, or do anything of the sort. They can access files in any folder. They can write files to any folder. These are settings for each program to set the folders used that can be changed in the program.

If you want to see image files, you simply need to find the folder they're in. If you want them elsewhere, it's easy to move them.

If you don't like Picasa, try a different image processing program. There are many to choose from.

I'm still baffled, Elmer, There are 403 folders in the box on the left of the foto images. Clicking on one of the folders gives me options that seem to all be different things in Picasa itself.

Being able, now, to import from the camera as I have in the past, and working out of "My documents" folders, I am content to let Picasa rot alone in the bowels of the computer. That's how shallow I am.

I appreciate your input attempts to penetrate my ignorance Thank you for that.

Cheers.

Clay

Picasa is a photo storage-management and sharing program. It was discontinued in 2015 so there are no more program updates or new versions available. There's also no need to use it at all ... but you may have to copy (or move) existing photos out of it to some other storage location in order to uninstall it without losing any data. I've never used it, don't know how it works, so can't offer any advice on that point.

I keep pictures in two parent folders on my hard drive, nothing more than Windows Explorer is needed to manage it.

Within each parent folder, I make subfolders named
YYYY.MM.DD xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ..... where YYYY.MM.DD is the date of the batch of photos and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is a brief description of the subject matter. My cameras (memory cards) or iPhone appear as removable drives in Windows Explorer when connected to the computer and I simply copy/move photos (and videos) off them to the permanent storage folders.

Old photos dating from 2001 through part of 2007 (which have been copied-over from previously crashed hard drives) are in a folder Pictures.

Newer photos from the remainder of 2007 through current (some have also been carried forward from crashed hard drives) are in My Pictures, which is part of my Windows user profile (where My Documents also exists). I'm using Windows 7. The native folder layout may be slightly different on Windows 8 or 10 or whatever .... but a folder to store photos can still be placed anywhere on the hard drive, and of any name one wishes to call it ... even directly on the desktop.

Clay, you my friend need to learn how to google. :) You can find pretty much anything you want to know how to do there instead of waiting for someone to respond.

Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH0Km_2CkFs.  It's a video about how to export photos from Picasa.

Also, Picasa does not store photos within the app. it only shows you all of the pictures currently stored on your computer's hard drive in an easy to use pane.

When you see a photo displayed in Picasa, you can right click on it, then choose "locate on disk." Windows Explorer will open and you will be able to see exactly where on your computer that the picture is stored. From there, you can move your images to wherever yo like.

I happen to like Picasa and mourned its disappearance and when I got a new computer, I couldn't find the install files. But, we have to move on...

I keep all my photos (and other documents I've created) on a separate, internal hard drive. Like Dadoes, I organize them into folders similar to his. This hard drive has actually been moved from an earlier computer (and has been backed up separately).

mtvhike I believe you can download Picasa from FileHippo.com.

Alas, there are still no updates.