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Photo metadata editor for Explorer

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi

Microsoft on Monday released a utility that allows users to edit photo file metadata from within Windows Explorer.

Microsoft Photo Info 1.0, available for free download, can edit image files with EXIF and IPTC info by batch, as well as individually.

The free downloadable utility requires users to be running an authorized copy of Windows XP with Service pack 2 or later (or Windows Vista) and the .NET Framework 2.0.

Once installed, Photo Info works from the file menu in Windows Explorer or by right-clicking over an image. Hover over the image and up pops a list of the metadata for that particular photo.

The utility will work with JPEG, TIFF, WDP, HDP (HD Photo), NEF, CR2, and CRW image files and write metadata to IPTC or XMP-formatted files, according to Microsoft's Web site.

Photo Info 1.0 will also generate copyright notices automatically from the author information.