I have IrfanView, although not currently installed. I think I used it to open or crop a panoramic view photo (32 separate photos combined) that was just too big for any of my other graphics programs to open. If I recall correctly, IrfanView does not have the tools from Photo Gallery that I want:
Slider to reduce/increase highlights
Slider to reduce/increase shadows
Slider to reduce/increase brightness
Slider to reduce/increase contrast
Above all else, the histogram that let me... I don't even know how to describe it, perhaps tighten the dynamic range across the photo.

In 10 or 15 seconds I could take an uninteresting photo and make it pop. Three stops underexposed? No problem: Kill the highlights, bring up the shadows, bring down the brightness and use the histogram to trim out the dynamic range with no information in it. It wouldn't be as good as had it been properly exposed in the first place, but salvageable, viewable.

I have a copy of "Adobe Photoshop Elements 7" which I installed and tried a few years ago before deciding that I didn't want to go through that steep of a learning curve. I have the Paint.Net program that Tony steered me to, and for years that has been my go-to graphics program for simple, light editing: crop, clone, cut and paste, contrast, saturation. That program along with Photo Gallery did everything I ever wanted or needed.

I guess I'll have to install the "Photoshop Lite" program again and see if I can live with it.

tanstaafl.