the fact that it stores all tags and other information such as captions and star ratings in the file metadaata, so that it easy both to back up that information and to transport the tagged and annotated photos to other PCs or other devices. the ease and power of its filtering abilities (using tags, dates, star ratings, flags, captions, etc.) the ease of tagging new photos (for example to tag a photo of Paris I simply need to key in Ctrl-T followed by the first few letters of Paris and choose Countries/France/Paris from the dropdown list) its use of hierarchical tags (such as Countries/France/Paris for example)
Their website blithely suggests the Windows 10 Photo Gallery app as the replacement, but as anyone who has used both programs knows the Windows 10 app is nowhere near as capable. The Microsoft website says that support will be withdrawn and it will no longer be available for download after next January. I have been using the Windows program (which I continue to call WLPG) for several years now but it is not working completely satisfactorily on my current (2015 model) PC and I fear that its days are numbered. Has anyone found an alternative to Windows Essentials Photo Gallery (previously called Windows Live Photo Gallery or WLPG) which can handle tagging of photos as effectively and easily?
