Copy Windows Photo Gallery face tags to Google Picasa

Windows Photo Gallery (formerly Windows Live Photo Gallery) writes facial recognition tags (people tags) directly to image file meta-data. Google Picasa until version 3.9 was storing face tags to its own internal database and configuration files. This made it tricky to synchronise face tags between different computers and makes it very easy to loose face tags while re-installing software, moving images, etc. 

Since version 3.9 Google Picasa has an option to write facial recognition tags to image meta-data. For some reason this option is disabled by default, it can be enabled in Tools > Options > Name Tags > Store name tags in photo.

This setting only affect images tagged from when the setting was enabled. If you want to transfer existing Picasa face tags stored in internal database to image meta-data you can do following:

• Make sure Store name tags in photo option is enabled.
• Just in case backup your photos.
• If you have a small number of photos, simply make an edit to a photo (Fill Light slider works fine). Save the changes (File > Save), and then undo the edit.
• If you have large number of photos, you can move all face tags to a new person and then move them back to the original person. This needs to be done for every person, but if you have large number of photos it's still more efficient than editing every single photo.

Logitech Harmony software error - InvocationTargetException

Logitech Harmony Remote Software 7 installed on Windows 8 Pro PC. Following error is displayed when trying to launch the application:

com.logitech.harmony.starter.Launcher - Remote Control Software Error
The Remote Control Software cannot start. Reinstall the software or contact customer service.
InvocationTargetException
null

Disable auto Login in Windows 8

• In Windows 8, after unlocking the lock screen, Windows tries to login into the last logged on account. If account is without a password Windows logins automatically.
• In a similar fashion if you restart computer from an account without password, Windows logs back in automatically.

One way to resolve the first issue is to disable the lock screen. It doesn't make much sense on non-touchscreen devices anyway and without the lock screen, you would need to click on the account picture to login into last logged in account.

The lock screen can be disabled via local group policy:

Windows 8 Family Safety pop-up notification

Every time something is blocked, Windows 8 Family Safety displays pop-up in the right top corner, accompanied by a notification sound. Whether this is desired behavior or not, there is no way to disable this feature. But you can make it less annoying.

First of all, check what is being blocked (either logged as a child or in Family Safety activity reports). With strict filtering settings, such as Allow list only or Designed for children, Family Safety often blocks various parts of legitimate websites (if they are on different domains).

For example, browsing child friendly website www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies Windows Family Safety can block stats.bbc.co.uk (as in the screenshot above) and sa.bbc.co.uk. As names suggest, these domains seem to be used to collect statistics information for BBC and this blocking will result in regularly appearing pop-up notifications. To prevent these pop-ups you can add stats.bbc.co.uk and sa.bbc.co.uk to Widows Family Safety Allow List.