ONE folder for ALL my pics,,,,

I then take the  "NEW PHOTO" off the Desktop, give it a GOOD NAME and drag and DROP it into the related FILE.........I also have SUB FILES.. Like if you click on the GRANDKIDS file, then you see a 2018 , 2019, 2020 .. etc for years........................ if you click on the HOUSE File, you see Sub FOlders that say..  2010 bathroom ...2015 Kitchen ..2018 bedroom.. etc.. to show rebuilds/ upgrades that were done to the house.

D.I.M. (Digital Image Mover) and FastStone

The real trick to photo management is renaming the photos as soon as the computer sees them.

And, I don't mean names like Uncle Frank's Birthday Party or Trip to the Zoo; that is the best way to create more confusion and lose the photos amongst thousands.

File the photosunder one main heading/folder and have that separated in many many subfolders, by year, then month, then day.

The KeyWord Tags will do the actual finding and the year/month/day will then allow you to do something with what you found and actually "get it in your hands"

I haven't got time at the moment to expand on this any farther; but, if you do have Windows and a real computer, I can walk you through it, step by step.

If you do have Windows, go ahead and download the most recent version of FREE FastStone and get it installed and up and running and be familiarizing yourself with it.

Once you get the handle on FastStone, you will use it all the time.

 OK, Buckskin, Steve, AC and Jay,,first of all Many THANKS for helping me get this thorn out of my posterior,,,,,,I worked on this yesterday most of the day and even enlisted MS's help altho it was obvious they did NOT like what I was doing,,,anyway,,,,

 I have no idee when it started but my desktop has been overtaken by onedrive as the default receiver of all incoming data, photos etc, ect,,I tried several youtube methods and finally got a suggestion from a member from another forum to check my desktop for delivery instructions and DANG if everything incoming was being routed past desktop on to oneedrive,,,,!!! WTF,,??   Clicked on start,,,photos,,,and there ain't Chit there cause,,,cause it already gone to onedrive,,,,!! even more WTF's,,,I've always had BIG issues trying to post pics cause I could not find my pics on my desktop,,,!! Some of them were there but always the ones I wanted were in onedrive "Without My Knowledge AND consent" and you have to sign-in to access them and I did not know that little tidbit,,,,!! I have NO idee whast  the password might be but I'm gonna find out and try to transfer everything back to my desktop, then transfer to an external hard drive (1 Terabite)

 Do ya'll agree that first order of business is to "OPEN" onedrive and get everything back to my PC's hard drive, see what is in there, delete what has to go then transfer what is left to the External hard drive,,,,??

 WHEW,,,,!!

There is no connection to any of that crap on any of my Windows 7 machines.

I do not have a Microsoft account, nor have I ever had need of one.

I managed to get ahold of a Linux-based password cracking software program that will dig out and obliterate any password on a Windows machine.

You would not believe how many people spend big money for a laptop that ends up gathering dust in a drawer for several years on account of they blindly followed the instructions at the beginning and created a "secure" password that they didn't write down anywhere and forgot within minutes.

It makes these people so happy when I unlock the thing and make it usable again.

I give them firm instructions to NOT create anymore passwords; but, they always do; and, I get to unlock the same machines over and over ----- people---

99% of the computer owning public have no real reason for a password nor to encrypt anything whatsoever.

As for losing photos somewhere in the wild blue yonder, D.I.M. has a backup option that saves the photos in two separate locations of your choosing; thus, from the very get go, you have two copies.

For photos that you really don't want to lose, it is best to have at least three separate hard-drives to store them on.

One hard-drive is the working one always connected to the machine.

The second hard-drive can either always be connected or plugged in on a regular schedule to have your photo collection duplicated on it.

The third hard-drive lives somewhere remote; over at Grannie's house or in the barn office.

It can be switched back and forth with hard-drive #2 to keep them both up to date.

That 3rd hard-drive is in case some drastic catastrophe destroys the first two.

There is a wonderful FREE program, Synchredible, that will take care of all this backing up on a schedule of your choosing so you won't have to remember to.

Never trust any of this "Cloud" business as they are notorious for shutting down and no way to access your photos ever again.

Any of this "subscription" stuff, you can go on E-Bay and stock up on 2nd hand hard-drives and hard-drive enclosures and better take care of it yourself for way less money.

 Well,,,,Jay,,,finding my desktop is almost kin to finding the Holy Grail in downtown Los Angelas,,,,,,,,even looked in control  with NO DICE,,! I was aable to find a "Remote Desktop" in settings but I don't even want to open that can of worms,,,

 SO,,,where is the dang thing,,,?

 Hey Buckskin,,,can't sleep either,,,???

 Well, There is a tiny icon in lower right of the Home page,, (blue box over a orange box) when my Win10 machine settles down. I mouse over it and it says COPILOT (Preview) I open it and I don't see what may be a place in which to store photos or any reference to "Desktop",,,,,?? Maybe is what MS now calls Desktop,,,?

I use Windows10 and my desktop is ALWAYS displayed. Yeah, 'cluttered' with folders and cat pix, buts it's always there.

I run 'stopwindowsupdate' and don't have any 'auto update/ change stuff' problems.

What you first need to do is quit allowing whatever to just dump things where it pleases and put this stuff where YOU want it; else, after you get it all sorted out, it is just going to continue this behavior.

I highly recommend you NOT USE the "Libraries" = My Pictures, My Music, My etc., as this is a really good way to end up with a confused mess.

I never use any of that pre-programmed stuff.

Create dedicated header folders away from all that, preferably in a different drive on a different partition --- but you may not be savvy enough yet to address that --- but you will get there.

There are free programs that will scour your machine and gather up all of what it thinks are this, that, and the other, going mostly by file type; and, for the most part, they are fairly accurate.

I would never choose any option that deletes duplicates as what a program thinks is a duplicate just might be the only copy you have.

Myself, I would set the machine to Show Hidden Files/Folders; Google how to set this as it is very basic and simple.

Then, I would go through it, folder by folder, and drag/drop everything into my newly created folders.

If you don't recognize something or don't know what it is --- LEAVE IT BE --- as it may be vital to something working or not.

Once you get all the sheep in the sheep pen, all the cows in the cow pen, and all the hogs in the hog pen, then, you can sort them closer.

I suggest before you begin this closer sorting that you now give new names to everything; probably for starters, just add to the front of whatever name it has, D__ for Document, P__ for Photo, M__ for Music, V_ for Video, KP__ for --- well, you get the idea.

Advanced Renamer is a FREE program that is fairly easy to learn and has the ability of adding this simple prefix to one or a million files at a single click so you don't have to laboriously do it one by one.

Now, with everything carrying these simple prefixes to their existing file-names, no matter what they are, your machine will sort and line them all up alphabetically; all your P__s will be grouped together; all your M__s, V__s, and D__s as well.

This way, if something gets in a wrong folder, it will stand out like a sore p  ecker.

When you download something to the machine, in most cases, it will provide ability to right then and there rename it --- this is an excellent time to add your prefix while it is fresh in your mind just what it is; you can go ahead and give it an entire new name; but, if you do nothing else, be sure and add that prefix.

In fact, I wouldn't get bogged down at the beginning with making meaningful new names, just add these simple prefixes to whatever name is already there.

You can get more specific about it later.

Think of it as a big stockyards, Omaha or Chicago or Bourbon.

The truck gets unloaded into a big pen, everything all mixed up.

Guys with big walking canes and hot-sticks roughly sort out the first gate and into the stack alleys, where the real sorting begins.

Or, think of it as a big conveyor coming out of a rock quarry, with the fines dropping out, and then the #11s, and then the 8's, and 68s, and 57s, and 5s, and 3s, and ZEROs, and then Channel-Liner #2s, and finally, the Shot Rock.

That big un-sorted pile back in the quarry, under the highwall, is your subject header folder, "ROCK"; all these piles of sorted rock are your sub-folders.

Your task is not nearly so daunting as you are thinking and can be quite enjoyable once you dig in.

Getting all the PHOTOS into ONE FILE is a major accomplishment.. THen as time permits you do the SUB FILES... at least you have EVERY PHOTO in ONE AREA.

 Hey Buckskin,, I won't do like that oriental guy did,, but,,,,,,

 By the way,,,when do you want me to send you my hard drive,,,,,?

 By the other way,,,I still DID NOT find on my newly discovered desk top just exactly how or where to  add where to send all future incoming to MY specific folder,,,??

 Hey Guys,,I'm still fighting this frigging issue with my IPhone not wanting to co-operate with me on placing my pics where "I" want to,,!!  On my home PC, I have had to do a "System Restore" to reset the PC to an earlier date when something,,OR Someone has changed "something" and screwed things up,,?? This has worked for me,,, ahem,,,,a few times,,,!! Does anyone know if this can be done on IPhones,,if it can,,I have not been able to find it in the IPhone settings,,,,?,?? 

 Reason is,,I have taken pics with my IPhone since this BS started and even tho I choose for them to go to my DESKTOP,,I cannot find them an hour later,,,,??????