Windows 7 Software Compatibility Testing - Paint.NET

I can state without fear of being wrong that most of us have used Paint at least once. As simple as it is, the drawing tool included in Windows falls really short before other commercial graphics editing programs like Photoshop or Corel Draw. But, what if we put both worlds together in a single program? And what if we really get greedy and ask for it to be free?

Paint.NET is an amazing piece of freeware which is drawing the attention of more and more users who need to get fast, professional yet easy-to-use solutions for image and photo editing without getting lost in the complexity of other graphic editors like Adobe's. So, what is it that makes of Pain.NET such a powerful app? Well, the list of features and perks is really endless, but just to mention a few I can tell you that Paint.NET brings an innovative and easy to understand interface, layers support, unlimited undo and redo capabilities and an incredible capability to apply effects.

Paint.NET also comes with automated image optimization tools including color adjustment, red-eye removal and greyscale or sepia conversion, and you can also perform more advanced tweaks in a full manual way. An interesting detail is that when you have several images open you can have thumbnail preview. But, above all, what is more important is that Paint.NET can carry out all of its functions at really low resources consumption.

Of course there are a lot of other various solid and handy tools, you can check this article at HandyWare for further reading, and here for a list of novelties and bug fixes for the latest version.

So, I've downloaded and installed Paint.NET version 3.5.1 in my Windows 7 based machine and what you are about to read is the result of having tested its behavior and integration under such environment.

Installation & First Run
I must admit that I was a bit skeptical based on my experience with other open source and/or freeware projects/apps. As you can imagine, I was given a big surprise as Paint.NET is absolutely incredible and amazingly fast from the very beginning, the complete installation procedure took no longer than a couple of minutes and to my astonishment it was the shorter in step I can remember since we started this series of testings.

The process started with the method and language selection window you can see above, of course I selected the "quick" as it said it is the recommended one. Next came the license agreement.

Agreeing and clicking next took me to the installation itself. This part was a bit longer but never exceeding the two minutes.

And voila!! Installation complete!

Clicking the finish button (and having previously checked the "Start Paint.NET" box) got Paint.NET to run for the first time. No hitches, delays, complicated procedures or decisions to be taken, in short a really smooth setup.

Functionality & Integration
Having had such a great first impression I was ready for more, so I tested some of its most outstanding functions (trying to test them all would take a lot of time as they are so many…). First of all I opened an image I have generated some time ago with an older version (I guess it was 3.1), and as you can see in the next screenshot Paint.NET did it perfectly.

Next I opened several images at the same time in order to test its thumbnail function. Again perfect!

To test the effects I chose the "Soften Portrait" effect and it did an excellent job. Please compare the next screenshot with the previous.

And finally the photo retouching capabilities worked really well. This is the result of applying noise reduction and brightness control.

Regarding integration I can only say that it is just perfect. Not hitches, bad installation or function warnings, besides it starts and closes in no time it is really fast and makes the best of Windows 7 visual features like Aero Glass.

Bugs Report
Not only Paint.NET claims to work perfectly under the Windows 7 environment, but it does, not only I could prove that but also other users who left nothing but positive comments in dedicated forums like this: "If you're looking for a free and powerful application for editing graphics, give Paint.NET 3.5 a try!". What else can I say?

Final Words
Astonishing, that is the only word that comes to my mind to end this testing.

If you have tried Paint.NET under Win 7, please leave a comment below and tell us what your experience was like.