How To Transfer Digital Photos to a PC

All the photos you take with your digital camera are stored on a removable memory card. To edit, print and share your photos with others, you'll want to transfer these photos from the memory card to your personal computer.

There are two primary ways to get photos into your computer. You can transfer pictures from your camera using a USB connecting cable, or you can copy the digital files directly from your camera's memory card. We'll discuss both methods, as they're quite common and equally easy to use.

After you've transferred a digital photo from your camera to your PC, you have lots of options. A digital picture file is just like any computer file, which means that you can copy it, move it or delete it. You can also use special picture editing software to manipulate your photos, touching up bad spots, cropping the edges and applying special effects. Transferring Pictures with USB Connecting a digital camera to your PC is easy. Most cameras come with a USB connecting cable. One end of this cable connects to your camera, the other end to a USB port on your computer.

With the cable connected, you should then, if necessary, select the "transfer pictures" setting on your camera. You may also need to turn on your camera. Once everything is connected and selected, one of three things is likely to happen:

• If you had previously installed a picture management program that came with your digital camera, this program should now launch. You can use this program to transfer photos from your camera to your PC's hard disk.

• Instead, Windows may recognize that a camera is connected and open the Removable Disk dialog box. If you see this dialog box, select "Copy Pictures to a Folder on My Computer Using Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard." Then you're presented with thumbnails of all the photos stored in your camera. Select which photos you want to copy, and then click the "Next" button. When the "Picture Name and Destination" screen appears, select the destination folder and filenames for your folders, and then click "Next" to copy the selected pictures.

• If nothing happens when you connect your camera, click the Windows Start button, select My Pictures, and then click Get Pictures From Camera or Scanner. This should open the wizard, as just described. If none of these methods works for you, you might need to open My Computer and double-click the icon for your digital camera. When the digital camera window opens, copy the files you want to a location on your hard disk.

Transferring Pictures from a Memory Card Reader

Copying digital pictures with USB can be a trifle slow. For many users, a faster and easier method is to use a memory card reader. Some PCs come with a memory card reader built in, but if your PC doesn't have memory card slots, you can buy an external memory card reader that connects to a USB port on your PC.

To transfer, insert the memory card from your digital camera into the appropriate slot on the memory card reader, and your PC will recognize the card as if it were another hard disk. You can then use My Computer to copy files from the memory card to your computer. Just open My Computer and click the drive icon for the memory card. This displays the card's contents, typically in a subfolder labeled DCIM. (DCIM stands for "digital camera images.") You can then move, copy and delete the photos stored on the card, as you would with any other type of file in Windows.

Michael Miller is a writer and commentator on technology and digital lifestyle topics.