I'm looking for a decent mid level photo editiong program other that Photoshop or anything that complicated. I don't want one of those kindergarden looking programs either (something that looks like XP's interface). I do have Thumbs Plus and IrFan View. They are good, but limited. I'm not doing advanced photo editing, just cleaning up, cropping, color balancing photos and slides. The most advanced would be removing/adding a person or object from a scene and replaceing that with the background (maybe). No web design or anything as that.

Any suggestions?

Microsoft Digital Image Pro v9.0 is just out and can remove background objects in a few clicks. Its an excellent program for touch-up editing, but isn't an advanced editing program like photoshop. Very easy to use and powerful enough for most users.

The microsoft website isn't yet showing version 9 (a much enhanced version) of the software, but it is available if you do a web search. I've tried both versions and I rather like version 9 as it does everything I need.

Actually, the Gimp (which is open source and GNU - i.e free) is not bad as well, and you get it for windows and linux.

Uh... Jasc Paint Shop Pro?
That smudge tool is god... like the eraser in Photoshop...

And of course, how can one forget CorelDraw

ULead PhotoImpact 8 is also very good, but has too many features for some users that prefer simpler programs.

That's probably the best for a lot of people. Its not that expensive (unlike Adobe Photoshop) and its not really all that bad at all.

If you've used a certain program (ex. Photoshop) for quite some time, it's really hard to switch to another program because one becomes accustomed to that program.

But, from what I've heard, Paint Shop Pro is "better" than Photoshop. I have no stance on that statement.