If someone offered you a Microsoft Word document manager, would you take it? Even for free? Probably not. Even if you've accumulated a fair number of personal documents over the years, you can probably organize them just fine with good old Microsoft Windows—you're used to the tried-and-true folder metaphor, and the operating system's new search tools track down documents quicker than ever.

So why would you want a photo manager? After all, Windows Explorer includes tools designed specifically for helping you manage your images. When you browse folders filled with pictures, you can see thumbnails. Windows Picture and Fax Viewer lets you rotate images, adjust their sizes, zoom in and out, and even view slide shows. If that's not enough, Web services such as SmugMug and Flickr—which many of us already use to share pictures with friends and family—also organize photos.

The truth is, many people can get by with nothing but the photo tools woven into Windows—for a while. And yes, if you use a photo-sharing site, your pics are neatly laid out on the Web. But once your collection expands to more than about 200 images, these methods begin to break down. Because photos are harder to search than text files, managing large numbers with Windows alone is difficult. And what if your photo-sharing site goes out of business or loses your data? Or if you decide to switch sites?

If you're dealing with a large collection, tools such as Picasa 2.0 and Preclick Gold Photo Organizer make finding the shot you want much easier. Spend a few seconds browsing pictures with Picasa's photo Timeline or Preclick's virtual film roll and you'll never go back to organizing with Windows again. Beyond that, these applications provide ways to back up pictures so that you don't lose them all if your hard drive crashes or something goes wrong with your photo-sharing site.

You should also realize that the term photo manager is somewhat misleading: Many could just as easily be called photo editors. A number of the products let you do everything from removing red-eye and cropping to adding special effects. And though these tools can't replace full-fledged photo-sharing services, they do facilitate sharing. Some dovetail nicely with popular Web-based services. Others send images via e-mail. Some do both.

A Word Document Manager? Pretty useless. But by the time you've taken a few hundred photos with that new digital camera, you'll definitely need a photo manager.

Cade Metz is Senior Writer at PC Magazine.