Windows only: One of the perks of Windows Vista is that it ships with a built-in digital picture manager called Photo Gallery—but now Windows XP users can get in on the newest beta of that action. The Photo Gallery Beta automatically organizes your pics by date, and can add tags, ratings and captions to each. Edit features include red eye reduction, sharpening, auto-enhance, cropping/resizing, and photo histogram adjustment; you can also publish your photos to Windows Live Spaces (but no Flickr or Shutterfly.) Not convinced that Photo Gallery betters Picasa just yet, but it has potential. Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta is a free download for XP as well as Vista, but watch for installation options which try to get you to set MSN as your default search engine and browser homepage.

Windows Live Services [via Underexposed]