Windows Live Essentials’ Windows Live Photo Gallery provides an excellent slide show feature that was present in Windows Vista but removed for Windows 7. Installing Windows Live Essentials brought this function to Windows 7 users.

Unfortunately when Photo Gallery 2011 was released Microsoft changed how Photo Gallery displays slideshows. Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 uses a different type of slideshow engine to display your pictures, and Windows Media. The major complaints are that the images no longer fill the entire screen and that Themes are no longer a good option.

For Windows Live Essentials advanced users not afraid to make changes to their Windows registry, users can get the old “Vista” slide show feature back because the old slide show engine is used for the Windows Live Photo Screensaver. Using the “Vista” slide show engine allows for more control of the slideshow interface and returns the option to select themes.

1. Click Start
2. In the Start Menu search box, type regedit and hit enter
3. Click Continue when the User Account Control dialog appears
4. Move to the following string: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Photo Gallery
5. Double click on AutoMoviePlayerSlideshow
6. Change the Value Data from 1 to 0
7. Click OK and close the Registry Editor

Note: Opening Window Live Move Maker will undo this registry change.