How To Make A Picture Slideshow On Windows Media Player

Are you looking for a nice way to create and display a slide show from your photo collection? Today we'll show you how to create a slide show, how to add music to it, and watch it from the comfort of your couch in Windows 7 Media Center.

Create Slide Show

Launch Windows 7 Media Center and click on the Picture Library tile found under Pictures and Videos.

In the Pictures Library, scroll across to slide shows and click on Create Slide show.

Enter a name for the slide show and click Next.

If you are using a Windows Media Center remote, click on the OK button to bring up the onscreen keyboard. Use the directional buttons to navigate across the keyboard and press OK to select each letter. Click Done when finished.

Select Picture Library and click Next.

Select the pictures to include in your slide show. If using a remote, navigate through the images and press OK to select. If you are using a mouse, simply click on the selections. When you are finished, click Next.

Now, we can review and edit the slide show. Click the up or down pointing arrows to move pictures up and down in the order. (more intuitive titles would be helpful in this case as opposed to the randomly generated titles in the example below)

If you are finished, click Create. You can also choose to go back and add music to your slide show. (or even more pictures) We'll take a look at adding some music in our example. Click on the Add More button.

Add Music to Your Slide Show

Here we'll select Music Library to add a song. Click Next.

You'll now be able to browse your Music Library to select songs for your slide show.

Select your songs and click Next.

When you are finished adding Music and Pictures click Create.

Once your slide show is saved, you can play it any time by going to clicking on slide shows in the Picture Library, then selecting the slide show title.

Select play slide show when you're ready to enjoy your new production.

If you ever want to edit or delete the slide show, select it in the Picture Library, and scroll to Actions. You'll see those option under additional commands. You have the option to Edit Slide Show, Burn a CD/DVD, or Delete.

Editing Slide Show Settings

Within Media Center, go to Tasks…

Click on Pictures…

Then choose Slide Shows.

From the Slide Show settings you have the option to Show pictures in random order, Show picture information, Show song information, and Use Pan and zoom effect. You can also adjust the length of time to display each picture, and change the background color.

Be sure to click Save to apply and changes before exiting.

If you choose to show picture information, the picture title, date, and star rating will be displayed in the top right.

If your slide show is accompanied by music and you choose to show song information, you will get a translucent overlay for a few seconds at the beginning of each song to indicate the song, album, and artist.

One of the really cool things about creating a slide show in Windows 7 Media Center is you can complete the entire process using just a Media Center remote.

Can't get enough slide shows? Check out how to turn your desktop into a picture slide show in Windows 7.