File metadata display in Windows/File Explorer

For those that do not know what I'm referring to, this is the data that
is displayed in the details pane. Name, Date Created, Size, etc.

The list of data you can choose is long, some are self explanatory, some
are not. Some mean what they say, such as the F-stop for a camera.
Others, such as Date Created, do not mean what you think it means at
first glance.

Does anyone know where you can find a comprehensive list of data that
could be part of a file, as well as the definitions of the data?

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

"Ken Springer" wrote

| Does anyone know where you can find a comprehensive list of data that
| could be part of a file, as well as the definitions of the data?
|

There are two different things. File properties
like size, date, etc are on disk and can be applied
to all files.

Properties could technically be called metadata,
but metadata usually refers to data stored in the
file header that decribes the content rather than
just describing the file from the OS's point of view.
That depends on file type. TXT and BMP have no
metadata at all. (Unless you count width/height
of a BMP.) PE files (EXE,DLL) have a PE file header
that lists imported functions, exported functions,
etc, as well as a version info section. TXT and BMP,
of course, don't have versions.

JPG can have a vast assortment of
metadata, which can be in a number of categories.
It's not really standardized. There are EXIF tag, IPTC
tags, and there could be other possibilities. Groups,
consortiums, or camera companies make these things
up and then viewers and editors might or might not
support them.

So you really need to narrow down what you're
looking for. If you're just curious about what's possible
that would take some research. There's not likely
to be a comprehensive list because it's either created
by people who create file formats or it's created in
a semi-anarchic way.

Even if there is a good list, that doesn't mean you
can access the metadata. For example, IPTC tags in
JPG are a standard used by journalists. They just
made it up and figured out a "standard" to store it in
JPG headers. For many years they were not supported
by viewers or editors. Today Irfan View supports them.
I'm not sure about Windows. And I'm not sure whether
either supports editing, as opposed to just reading.
And resaving the image could remove all of that, because
it's an unnecessary part of the file header, not the file
data. (I like to clean such data from JPGs I work on,
which is easily done by resaving to BMP or TIF, or
just resaving without the metadata.)

Here's a pretty good list of basic EXIF tags for JPG:

https://sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exi...ames/EXIF.html

Ken Springer wrote:
For those that do not know what I'm referring to, this is the data that
is displayed in the details pane. Name, Date Created, Size, etc.

The list of data you can choose is long, some are self explanatory, some
are not. Some mean what they say, such as the F-stop for a camera.
Others, such as Date Created, do not mean what you think it means at
first glance.

Does anyone know where you can find a comprehensive list of data that
could be part of a file, as well as the definitions of the data?


"The Windows Property System is an extensible read/write system of
data definitions that provides a uniform way of expressing metadata
about Shell items.

The Windows Property system in Windows Vista and later enables you
to store and retrieve metadata for Shell items.

A Shell item is any single piece of content, such as
a file, folder, email, or contact."

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...(v=vs.85).aspx

Well, that's just wonderful, but I'm not finding a good

Advanced Query Syntax

to go with this info.

********

Since I'm a goofball, instead of understanding what all the fields are,
I decided to set out and query just the ones that actually exist in
the search database.

First, navigate to where the Windows Search is located.

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\ Windows\windows.edb

Now, the next problem, is the file is "open" by the Windows Search Indexer
service. So I go to Control Panels : Administrative Tools : Services and
I click the Stop button on the Windows Search Indexer service. Note that
it'll restart itself like grease lightning, so you must now select the
file, copy and paste to another folder, before it starts itself again.

Now, on this Win10 example, the file happens to be 5GB, because this is
my machine with the build trees on it. A **** poor place to start.
Too much unrelated data to walk through.

Now, get the ESEDatabase viewer application from near the bottom of this page.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/ese_database_view.html

Windows.edb is supposed to be an instance of a Jet Blue ESE database.

Once I copied the file, I modified the permissions so my user account
could access it. I don't know if that was absolutely necessary, but I
did it anyway.

Make a temp directory for your output files. I worked on my F: drive.

cd /d F:

ESEDatabaseView.exe /table windows.edb * /scomma "F:\Temp\windows_*.csv"

The "*" is a wildcard for all the tables in that database. There
were a handful of them (I didn't count, maybe a dozen). I did
a search and found that the smallest two files, had the data I
wanted.

windows_MSysObjectsShadow.csv ~64K
windows_MSysObjects.csv ~64K

Using a copy of grep, I can generate some potential values
of properties in there. The strings have "System_Photo_" in them.
I found 35 values.

The raw info looks like this.

windows_MSysObjects.csv:17,2,257,12,512,4096,1200, ,,,,,4564-System_Photo_GainControlText,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

and after processing and sorting, the unique ones I could find look like this.

Aperture
CameraManufacturer
CameraModel
ContrastText
DateTaken
DigitalZoom
Event
ExposureBias
ExposureProgram
ExposureProgramText
ExposureTime
Flash
FlashFired
FlashText
FNumber
FocalLength
FocalLengthInFilm
GainControlText
ISOSpeed
LightSource
MaxAperture
MeteringMode
MeteringModeText
Orientation
OrientationText
PeopleNames
PhotometricInterpretationText
ProgramModeText
SaturationText
SharpnessText
ShutterSpeed
SubjectDistance
TagViewAggregate
WhiteBalance
WhiteBalanceText

I would not be surprised if half of these did not exist,
but I decided to take another approach to get some search
terms to work with.

Paul

"Paul" wrote

| "The Windows Property System is an extensible read/write system of
| data definitions that provides a uniform way of expressing metadata
| about Shell items.
|
| A Shell item is any single piece of content, such as
| a file, folder, email, or contact."
|
|
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...(v=vs.85).aspx
|
| Well, that's just wonderful, but I'm not finding a good....

I'm not sure how useful you'll find that. And it looks like
you'd need to learn .Net. You can get the basic Explorer
approach he

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../ee176615.aspx

Shell.Application is a COM object that represents Explorer.
File properties have been available since Win9x, but vary
with each OS. Yet that, too, is of limited value. And it's
all file info from Windows point of view.
Note the page above sghows 35 properties available on
Win2000 On Win8 it's up to 296. Unfortuantely, Microsoft
jumbles them around.

Win8 Win7
Vista
259 White balance Program description Legal trademarks

It's a mess for anything but basic file properties.

Here's the definitive JPG tool, but it's poorly
designed, intended mainly as a commandline tool.
And that's just for JPG. So it really depends on what
kind of info Ken wants to find.

"Paul" wrote

|
| A Shell item is any single piece of content, such as
| a file, folder, email, or contact."
|
Here's more on GetDetailsOf. It's easy to return with vbscript:

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Fo...orum=vbgeneral

That page is a .Net programming discussion but it does
at least provide someguidance about the data available
and the numbers for each attribute. But as noted above,
the numbers change with each Windows version!

On 2/23/18 3:38 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
For those that do not know what I'm referring to, this is the data that
is displayed in the details pane. Name, Date Created, Size, etc.

The list of data you can choose is long, some are self explanatory, some
are not. Some mean what they say, such as the F-stop for a camera.
Others, such as Date Created, do not mean what you think it means at
first glance.

Does anyone know where you can find a comprehensive list of data that
could be part of a file, as well as the definitions of the data?

Mayayana and Paul,

I shoulda known! Between the two of you, I've got more information than
I understand! ROFL

This is, more or less, a joint reply to both of you.

After reading all the replies, it looks like I'm after
information/definitions of both properties and metadata.

Just to make sure we are all on the same page...

1. Open Windows/File Explorer, and select Details for the view.
2. Rt. click on the bar at the top of the details pane, where you'll
have Name, size, etc. At the bottom of the dialogue that opens, select
More. The next dialogue is the "data" I referenced in the subject line.

I suspect the data listed is the same as in the link Mayayana provided
that lists File Properties for Win2000, but a lot more of it. FWIW, on
my W7 system, that number is 289.

But... A lot of the items in this list is information you get in
Irfanview when you drill down and get the Exif data there.

My conclusion is, the list contains both file properties and metadata.

What I want to know, is the definitions of these terms, and what happens
when you move/copy things around.

For example... The Date Created property...

Over the past holidays, my brother-in-law began going through his photos
collection. And he has thousands of photos spread across multiple
locations. I found him a better file manager than Windows Explorer,
he's using Windows 7, and away he went. Copying the photos he wanted to
keep, deleting those he did not.

Eventually he noticed the Date Created field was updated when the file
was copied from source to destination. (He did not want to move the
file, in case of a problem.) He was ****ed because, like probably
almost everyone else, he thought Date Created meant when the photo was
taken. I added the Date Taken column, and he was quite relieved. LOL

Information about that type of quirkiness is what I'm interested in
finding out. I want to know, does a column actually show the
information I want.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Ken Springer wrote:
On 2/23/18 3:38 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
For those that do not know what I'm referring to, this is the data that
is displayed in the details pane. Name, Date Created, Size, etc.

The list of data you can choose is long, some are self explanatory, some
are not. Some mean what they say, such as the F-stop for a camera.
Others, such as Date Created, do not mean what you think it means at
first glance.

Does anyone know where you can find a comprehensive list of data that
could be part of a file, as well as the definitions of the data?

Mayayana and Paul,

I shoulda known! Between the two of you, I've got more information than
I understand! ROFL

This is, more or less, a joint reply to both of you.

After reading all the replies, it looks like I'm after
information/definitions of both properties and metadata.

Just to make sure we are all on the same page...

1. Open Windows/File Explorer, and select Details for the view.
2. Rt. click on the bar at the top of the details pane, where you'll
have Name, size, etc. At the bottom of the dialogue that opens, select
More. The next dialogue is the "data" I referenced in the subject line.

I suspect the data listed is the same as in the link Mayayana provided
that lists File Properties for Win2000, but a lot more of it. FWIW, on
my W7 system, that number is 289.

But... A lot of the items in this list is information you get in
Irfanview when you drill down and get the Exif data there.

My conclusion is, the list contains both file properties and metadata.

What I want to know, is the definitions of these terms, and what happens
when you move/copy things around.

For example... The Date Created property...

Over the past holidays, my brother-in-law began going through his photos
collection. And he has thousands of photos spread across multiple
locations. I found him a better file manager than Windows Explorer,
he's using Windows 7, and away he went. Copying the photos he wanted to
keep, deleting those he did not.

Eventually he noticed the Date Created field was updated when the file
was copied from source to destination. (He did not want to move the
file, in case of a problem.) He was ****ed because, like probably
almost everyone else, he thought Date Created meant when the photo was
taken. I added the Date Taken column, and he was quite relieved. LOL

Information about that type of quirkiness is what I'm interested in
finding out. I want to know, does a column actually show the
information I want.

Some information is File System metadata. It's kept on a per file
basis, and stored either in $MFT, or in the directory structure of
the folder it's in.

Whereas, by comparison, a Photo shot with a camera, the camera
can add EXIF data to the picture before storing it in DCIM. If
the camera has a GPS for example, it can put in the lat and long
coordinates of where the picture was taken. And also, if it has GPS,
it has an opportunity to stamp accurate timestamps on the exact second
the picture was taken. The camera can record all the settings, what
lens was used (for smart lens that the camera can "read").

If you have a cheaper camera, it has a timepiece, but that
timepiece is only as good as the user maintenance habits. My
camera is probably off by about half-a-day or so, off of true
time. But if a camera has sufficient gadgets, it may have
a way of calibrating the timestamp every once in a while.

The 35 items I showed, that I extracted from windows.edb,
those are a *subset* of the entire EXIF set. Microsoft
chooses not to use the more obscure ones in their Search setup.

Whereas a thing like Exiftool, it knows about everything. If
anything has ever been added to EXIF, the Exiftool has it.

If Microsoft wanted to, they probably could have allowed their
"codec" that does the indexing, to grab all the EXIF strings and
include them. But sooner or later, such a sloppy practice would
have caught up with them. Which is why they use a subset.

*******

Worked example.

https://s14.postimg.org/nry6sfwsh/pictures.gif

Paul

"Ken Springer" wrote

| I shoulda known! Between the two of you, I've got more information than
| I understand! ROFL
|

Well, I'm sure Paul's extensive followup won't be
enough for you.

I think one thing to remember is that this stuff is
mostly just not completely standard. The metadata
in photos, if they're JPG, is in the file, but Windows
is just showing you a random selection, if anything.

I think DateCreated is probably the only odd one,
and even that's not really odd if you think about it.
Though I think there was a big debate about this
somewhere recently.
As Paul said, that basic info is not in the file. It's
stored by the Windows file system. DateAccessed is
obvious, if mostly pointless. LastModified is the last
time that file was changed. DateCtreated is when
*that* file was created. If you move a file to another
drive it keeps the date. If you copy it there's a new
date. That makes sense if you think about it because
Windows is tracking files, not content. A copy has no
relation to the original file. It's as much a file as the
first was. DateLastModified is usually more useful.

Also noteworthy: This is only a Windows record. It
doesn't travel off-disk. It seems to only because things
like ZIP files and recorded CDs store the data. When you
then reconstitute a file on disk the ZIP software or
other entity sets the file times. There's a Windows API
function for that, called SetFileTime. You could set the
Created time yourself if you wanted to.

I'm pasting 2 things below. I'm afraid they're both
bulky. First is a sample VBScript. If you copy it to
Notepad and save as fileinfo.vbs, you can drop any
file onto it to get info. It will write a fileinfo.txt
file to C:\ and also show as much data as will fit in
a msgbox.
For anyone interested this script is an interesting demo
of Shell functions. It's looking at files from Explorer's
point of view rather than the file system. In fact, it
also has some odd quirks. On some systems it may
not list some system files or hidden files. That's because
as the Explorer API it's dealing with display of files.

I'll post another post with a list of attributes. I'd
give you a link but I haven't been able to find where
I got this list. It shows how varied the properties
are on different Windows versions.
Basically, Microsoft provide this functionality so
that people can design shell extensions. But they
don't really want the hoi polloi doing too much
customizing. So they like to break things willy nilly,
as a kind of wrench in the works of tweakers.

Here's the script:
'-------------------------- begin script --------
' ---------- WATCH OUT FOR WORDWRAP ------

Dim ShellApp, FSO, arg, FIs, Fol, FI, Pt1
Dim sFol, i2, sFil, i3, sProps, s2, iCount
Dim A1()
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set ShellApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
On Error Resume Next

arg = WScript.arguments(0)
If (len(arg) = 0) Then
MsgBox "Drop a file onto the script to retrieve all available file
properties."
DropIt
End If

ReDim A1(300)
sFil = FSO.GetFileName(arg)
'-- get parent folder path.
sFol = FSO.GetParentFolderName(arg)
'-- get ShellFolder object for folder path.
Set Fol = ShellApp.NameSpace(sFol)
'-- get Folder.Items collection.
Set FIs = Fol.Items
For i2 = 1 to FIs.Count
'-- go through folder items until a match is found.
If FIs.Item(i2).Name = sFil Then
iCount = -1
For i3 = -1 to 299
s2 = Fol.GetDetailsOf(FIs.Item(i2), i3)
If (len(s2) 0) Then
iCount = iCount + 1
A1(iCount) = s2
End If
Next
Exit For
End If
Next

If (iCount -1) Then
ReDim Preserve A1(iCount)
sProps = Join(A1, vbCrLf)
End If

MsgBox sProps
Set TS = FSO.CreateTextFile("C:\fileinfo.txt", True)
TS.Write sProps
TS.Close
Set TS = Nothing

DropIt

Sub DropIt()
Set FIs = Nothing
Set Fol = Nothing
Set ShellApp = Nothing
Set FSO = Nothing
WScript.quit
End Sub

Here's the list of file attributes. Hopefully it can
be salvaged OK out of a post. This is tab-delineated,
so if you view it with a mono-spaced font like
Courier New it should be clear. But there might be
some wordwrap to fix:

;Attribute tables
;
; Windows 8/2012 Windows 7/2008 R2 Windows
Vista/2008 Windows XP/2003 Windows 2000
;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; 0 Name Name Name
Name Name
; 1 Size Size Size
Size Size
; 2 Item type Item type Type
Type Type
; 3 Date modified Date modified Date modified
Date Modified Date Modified
; 4 Date created Date created Date created
Date Created Attributes
; 5 Date accessed Date accessed Date accessed
Date Accessed Comment
; 6 Attributes Attributes Attributes
Attributes Date Created
; 7 Offline status Offline status Offline status
Status Date Accessed
; 8 Offline availability Offline availability Offline
availability Owner Owner
; 9 Perceived type Perceived type Perceived type
Author ???
; 10 Owner Owner Owner
Title Author
; 11 Kind Kind Kinds
Subject Title
; 12 Date taken Date taken Date taken
Category Subject
; 13 Contributing artists Contributing artists Artists
Pages Category
; 14 Album Album Album
Comments Pages
; 15 Year Year Year
Copyright Copyright
; 16 Genre Genre Genre
Artist Company Name
; 17 Conductors Conductors Conductors
Album Title Module Desription
; 18 Tags Tags Tags
Year Module Version
; 19 Rating Rating Rating
Track Number Product Name
; 20 Authors Authors Authors
Genre Product Version
; 21 Title Title Title
Duration Sender Name
; 22 Subject Subject Subject
Bit Rate Recipient Name
; 23 Categories Categories Categories
Protected Recipient Number
; 24 Comments Comments Comments
Camera Model Csid
; 25 Copyright Copyright Copyright
Date Picture Taken Tsid
; 26 # # #
Dimensions Transmission Time
; 27 Length Length Length
??? Caller Id
; 28 Bit rate Bit rate Bit rate
??? Routing
; 29 Protected Protected Protected
Episode Name Audio Format
; 30 Camera model Camera model Camera model
Program Description Sample Rate
; 31 Dimensions Dimensions Dimensions
Description Audio Sample Size
; 32 Camera maker Camera maker Camera maker
Audio sample size Channels
; 33 Company Company Company
Audio sample rate Play Length
; 34 File description File description File
description Channels Frame Count
; 35 Program name Program name Program name
Company Frame Rate
; 36 Duration Duration Duration
Description Video Sample Size
; 37 Is online Is online Is online
File Version Video Compression
; 38 Is recurring Is recurring Is recurring
Product Name ???
; 39 Location Location Location
Product Version ???
; 40 Optional attendee addresses Optional attendee addresses Optional
attendee addresses Keywords (XP only) ???
; 41 Optional attendees Optional attendees Optional
attendees
; 42 Organizer address Organizer address Organizer
address
; 43 Organizer name Organizer name Organizer name
; 44 Reminder time Reminder time Reminder time
; 45 Required attendee addresses Required attendee addresses Required
attendee addresses
; 46 Required attendees Required attendees Required
attendees
; 47 Resources Resources Resources
; 48 Meeting status Meeting status Free/busy
status
; 49 Free/busy status Free/busy status Total size
; 50 Total size Total size Account name
; 51 Account name Account name Computer
; 52 Task status Task status Anniversary
; 53 Computer Computer Assistant's
name
; 54 Anniversary Anniversary Assistant's
phone
; 55 Assistant's name Assistant's name Birthday
; 56 Assistant's phone Assistant's phone Business
address
; 57 Birthday Birthday Business city
; 58 Business address Business address Business
country/region
; 59 Business city Business city Business P.O.
box
; 60 Business country/region Business country/region Business postal
code
; 61 Business P.O. box Business P.O. box Business state
or province
; 62 Business postal code Business postal code Business street
; 63 Business state or province Business state or province Business fax
; 64 Business street Business street Business home
page
; 65 Business fax Business fax Business phone
; 66 Business home page Business home page Callback number
; 67 Business phone Business phone Car phone
; 68 Callback number Callback number Children
; 69 Car phone Car phone Company main
phone
; 70 Children Children Department
; 71 Company main phone Company main phone E-mail Address
; 72 Department Department E-mail2
; 73 E-mail address E-mail address E-mail3
; 74 E-mail2 E-mail2 E-mail list
; 75 E-mail3 E-mail3 E-mail display
name
; 76 E-mail list E-mail list File as
; 77 E-mail display name E-mail display name First name
; 78 File as File as Full name
; 79 First name First name Gender
; 80 Full name Full name Given name
; 81 Gender Gender Hobbies
; 82 Given name Given name Home address
; 83 Hobbies Hobbies Home city
; 84 Home address Home address Home
country/region
; 85 Home city Home city Home P.O. box
; 86 Home country/region Home country/region Home postal
code
; 87 Home P.O. box Home P.O. box Home state or
province
; 88 Home postal code Home postal code Home street
; 89 Home state or province Home state or province Home fax
; 90 Home street Home street Home phone
; 91 Home fax Home fax IM addresses
; 92 Home phone Home phone Initials
; 93 IM addresses IM addresses Job title
; 94 Initials Initials Label
; 95 Job title Job title Last name
; 96 Label Label Mailing address
; 97 Last name Last name Middle name
; 98 Mailing address Mailing address Cell phone
; 99 Middle name Middle name Nickname
;100 Cell phone Cell phone Office location
;101 Nickname Nickname Other address
;102 Office location Office location Other city
;103 Other address Other address Other
country/region
;104 Other city Other city Other P.O. box
;105 Other country/region Other country/region Other postal
code
;106 Other P.O. box Other P.O. box Other state or
province
;107 Other postal code Other postal code Other street
;108 Other state or province Other state or province Pager
;109 Other street Other street Personal title
;110 Pager Pager City
;111 Personal title Personal title Country/region
;112 City City P.O. box
;113 Country/region Country/region Postal code
;114 P.O. box P.O. box State or
province
;115 Postal code Postal code Street
;116 State or province State or province Primary e-mail
;117 Street Street Primary phone
;118 Primary e-mail Primary e-mail Profession
;119 Primary phone Primary phone Spouse
;120 Profession Profession Suffix
;121 Spouse/Partner Spouse/Partner TTY/TTD phone
;122 Suffix Suffix Telex
;123 TTY/TTD phone TTY/TTD phone Webpage
;124 Telex Telex Status
;125 Webpage Webpage Content type
;126 Content status Content status Date acquired
;127 Content type Content type Date archived
;128 Date acquired Date acquired Date completed
;129 Date archived Date archived Date imported
;130 Date completed Date completed Client ID
;131 Device category Device category Contributors
;132 Connected Connected Content created
;133 Discovery method Discovery method Last printed
;134 Friendly name Friendly name Date last saved
;135 Local computer Local computer Division
;136 Manufacturer Manufacturer Document ID
;137 Model Model Pages
;138 Paired Paired Slides
;139 Classification Classification Total editing
time
;140 Status Status Word count
;141 Status Client ID Due date
;142 Client ID Contributors End date
;143 Contributors Content created File count
;144 Content created Last printed Filename
;145 Last printed Date last saved File version
;146 Date last saved Division Flag color
;147 Division Document ID Flag status
;148 Document ID Pages Space free
;149 Pages Slides Bit depth
;150 Slides Total editing time Horizontal
resolution
;151 Total editing time Word count Width
;152 Word count Due date Vertical
resolution
;153 Due date End date Height
;154 End date File count Importance
;155 File count Filename Is attachment
;156 File extension File version Is deleted
;157 Filename Flag color Has flag
;158 File version Flag status Is completed
;159 Flag color Space free Incomplete
;160 Flag status Bit depth Read status
;161 Space free Horizontal resolution Shared
;162 Sharing type Width Creator
;163 Bit depth Vertical resolution Date
;164 Horizontal resolution Height Folder name
;165 Width Importance Folder path
;166 Vertical resolution Is attachment Folder
;167 Height Is deleted Participants
;168 Importance Encryption status Path
;169 Is attachment Has flag Contact names
;170 Is deleted Is completed Entry type
;171 Encryption status Incomplete Language
;172 Has flag Read status Date visited
;173 Is completed Shared Description
;174 Incomplete Creators Link status
;175 Read status Date Link target
;176 Shared Folder name URL
;177 Creators Folder path Media created
;178 Date Folder Date released
;179 Folder name Participants Encoded by
;180 Folder path Path Producers
;181 Folder By location Publisher
;182 Participants Type Subtitle
;183 Path Contact names User web URL
;184 By location Entry type Writers
;185 Type Language Attachments
;186 Contact names Date visited Bcc addresses
;187 Entry type Description Bcc names
;188 Language Link status Cc addresses
;189 Date visited Link target Cc names
;190 Description URL Conversation ID
;191 Link status Media created Date received
;192 Link target Date released Date sent
;193 URL Encoded by From addresses
;194 Media created Producers From names
;195 Date released Publisher Has attachments
;196 Encoded by Subtitle Sender address
;197 Episode number User web URL Sender name
;198 Producers Writers Store
;199 Publisher Attachments To addresses
;200 Season number Bcc addresses To do title
;201 Subtitle Bcc To names
;202 User web URL Cc addresses Mileage
;203 Writers Cc Album artist
;204 Attachments Conversation ID
Beats-per-minute
;205 Bcc addresses Date received Composers
;206 Bcc Date sent Initial key
;207 Cc addresses From addresses Mood
;208 Cc From Part of set
;209 Conversation ID Has attachments Period
;210 Date received Sender address Color
;211 Date sent Sender name Parental rating
;212 From addresses Store Parental rating
reason
;213 From To addresses Space used
;214 Has attachments To do title EXIF version
;215 Sender address To Event
;216 Sender name Mileage Exposure bias
;217 Store Album artist Exposure
program
;218 To addresses Album ID Exposure time
;219 To do title Beats-per-minute F-stop
;220 To Composers Flash mode
;221 Mileage Initial key Focal length
;222 Album artist Part of a compilation 35mm focal
length
;223 Sort album artist Mood ISO speed
;224 Album ID Part of set Lens maker
;225 Sort album Period Lens model
;226 Sort contributing artists Color Light source
;227 Beats-per-minute Parental rating Max aperture
;228 Composers Parental rating reason Metering mode
;229 Sort composer Space used Orientation
;230 Initial key EXIF version Program mode
;231 Part of a compilation Event Saturation
;232 Mood Exposure bias Subject
distance
;233 Part of set Exposure program White balance
;234 Period Exposure time Priority
;235 Color F-stop Project
;236 Parental rating Flash mode Channel number
;237 Parental rating reason Focal length Episode name
;238 Space used 35mm focal length Closed
captioning
;239 EXIF version ISO speed Rerun
;240 Event Lens maker SAP
;241 Exposure bias Lens model Broadcast date
;242 Exposure program Light source Program
description
;243 Exposure time Max aperture Recording time
;244 F-stop Metering mode Station call
sign
;245 Flash mode Orientation Station name
;246 Focal length People Auto summary
;247 35mm focal length Program mode Summary
;248 ISO speed Saturation Search ranking
;249 Lens maker Subject distance Sensitivity
;250 Lens model White balance Shared with
;251 Light source Priority Product name
;252 Max aperture Project Product version
;253 Metering mode Channel number Source
;254 Orientation Episode name Start date
;255 People Closed captioning Billing
information
;256 Program mode Rerun Complete
;257 Saturation SAP Task owner
;258 Subject distance Broadcast date Total file size
;259 White balance Program description Legal
trademarks
;260 Priority Recording time Video
compression
;261 Project Station call sign Directors
;262 Channel number Station name Data rate
;263 Episode name Summary Frame height
;264 Closed captioning Snippets Frame rate
;265 Rerun Auto summary Frame width
;266 SAP Search ranking Total bitrate
;267 Broadcast date Sensitivity
;268 Program description Shared with
;269 Recording time Sharing status
;270 Station call sign Product name
;271 Station name Product version
;272 Summary Support link
;273 Snippets Source
;274 Auto summary Start date
;275 Search ranking Billing information
;276 Sensitivity Complete
;277 Shared with Task owner
;278 Sharing status Total file size
;279 Product name Legal trademarks
;280 Product version Video compression
;281 Support link Directors
;282 Source Data rate
;283 Start date Frame height
;284 Billing information Frame rate
;285 Complete Frame width
;286 Task owner Total bitrate
;287 Sort title Creator
;288 Total file size Encryption Level
;289 Legal trademarks Content Accessibility
;290 Video compression Document Assembly
;291 Directors Changing
;292 Data rate Commenting
;293 Frame height Copying
;294 Frame rate Form Filling
;295 Frame width Printing
;296 Video orientation Producer

On 2/23/18 11:57 PM, Paul wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:
On 2/23/18 3:38 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
For those that do not know what I'm referring to, this is the data that
is displayed in the details pane. Name, Date Created, Size, etc.

The list of data you can choose is long, some are self explanatory, some
are not. Some mean what they say, such as the F-stop for a camera.
Others, such as Date Created, do not mean what you think it means at
first glance.

Does anyone know where you can find a comprehensive list of data that
could be part of a file, as well as the definitions of the data?

Mayayana and Paul,

I shoulda known! Between the two of you, I've got more information than
I understand! ROFL

This is, more or less, a joint reply to both of you.

After reading all the replies, it looks like I'm after
information/definitions of both properties and metadata.

Just to make sure we are all on the same page...

1. Open Windows/File Explorer, and select Details for the view.
2. Rt. click on the bar at the top of the details pane, where you'll
have Name, size, etc. At the bottom of the dialogue that opens, select
More. The next dialogue is the "data" I referenced in the subject line.

I suspect the data listed is the same as in the link Mayayana provided
that lists File Properties for Win2000, but a lot more of it. FWIW, on
my W7 system, that number is 289.

But... A lot of the items in this list is information you get in
Irfanview when you drill down and get the Exif data there.

My conclusion is, the list contains both file properties and metadata.

What I want to know, is the definitions of these terms, and what happens
when you move/copy things around.

For example... The Date Created property...

Over the past holidays, my brother-in-law began going through his photos
collection. And he has thousands of photos spread across multiple
locations. I found him a better file manager than Windows Explorer,
he's using Windows 7, and away he went. Copying the photos he wanted to
keep, deleting those he did not.

Eventually he noticed the Date Created field was updated when the file
was copied from source to destination. (He did not want to move the
file, in case of a problem.) He was ****ed because, like probably
almost everyone else, he thought Date Created meant when the photo was
taken. I added the Date Taken column, and he was quite relieved. LOL

Information about that type of quirkiness is what I'm interested in
finding out. I want to know, does a column actually show the
information I want.

Some information is File System metadata. It's kept on a per file
basis, and stored either in $MFT, or in the directory structure of
the folder it's in.

I wonder if this idea is similar to the old Resource Fork that used to
be on Apple's System OS that predates OS X. I never owned a Mac back
then, but had played with a couple.

Whereas, by comparison, a Photo shot with a camera, the camera
can add EXIF data to the picture before storing it in DCIM. If
the camera has a GPS for example, it can put in the lat and long
coordinates of where the picture was taken. And also, if it has GPS,
it has an opportunity to stamp accurate timestamps on the exact second
the picture was taken. The camera can record all the settings, what
lens was used (for smart lens that the camera can "read").

I've always wondered about the DCIM folder. Next time I pull the card
from my camera, I'll go exploring after I copy the photos.

If you have a cheaper camera, it has a timepiece, but that
timepiece is only as good as the user maintenance habits. My
camera is probably off by about half-a-day or so, off of true
time. But if a camera has sufficient gadgets, it may have
a way of calibrating the timestamp every once in a while.

The 35 items I showed, that I extracted from windows.edb,
those are a *subset* of the entire EXIF set. Microsoft
chooses not to use the more obscure ones in their Search setup.

Whereas a thing like Exiftool, it knows about everything. If
anything has ever been added to EXIF, the Exiftool has it.

If Microsoft wanted to, they probably could have allowed their
"codec" that does the indexing, to grab all the EXIF strings and
include them. But sooner or later, such a sloppy practice would
have caught up with them. Which is why they use a subset.

*******

Worked example.

https://s14.postimg.org/nry6sfwsh/pictures.gif

the Date column... I don't think the info is taken from the EXIF
data. In the case of photos, it appears to just be the same.

I opened a folder with a text doc I'm working on, and showed the Data
and Date Taken columns. The Date column had data, the Date Taken did not.

That made me think the Date column had data similar to the Date Taken,
I.E. the date the file was first saved. But, that doesn't seem to be
true either.

I copied the text file to another partition, expecting the Date column
to remain the same. But it didn't. The date shown in the Date column
was different. It was actually 3 days older!!

I have no idea why. I'm wondering if it might have something to do with
the template date, but haven't tested this yet.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

"Ken Springer" wrote

| I wonder if this idea is similar to the old Resource Fork that used to
| be on Apple's System OS that predates OS X. I never owned a Mac back
| then, but had played with a couple.
|
File properties are part of file system data.
But Micorosft did explore a resource fork. That's
what ADS (alternate data stream) files are.
They were invented to accomodate the Mac
resource fork with MS Office. But they only
work on NTFS systems and the're a security
risk. The whole thing kind of fell apart. But for
a period of time MSO "comments" were being
stored as ADS files. That didn't work out so well
because they disappeared when moved from NTFS
and not all computers could handle them, since many
were still using FAT32 format.

Later ADS were used to tag downloaded files as
permanently insecure. Another idea that seemed
to make sense to someone at one point.

But ADS files are still there. You can hide 100 MB
of incriminating data by attaching it to, say, a family
photo and no one will know the difference.
Explorer won't show it. And of course that's also
a handy way for malware to hide.

On 2/24/18 7:10 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"Ken Springer" wrote

| I shoulda known! Between the two of you, I've got more information than
| I understand! ROFL
|

Well, I'm sure Paul's extensive followup won't be
enough for you.

Actually, it is just about right, as Goldilocks might say! G

I think one thing to remember is that this stuff is
mostly just not completely standard. The metadata
in photos, if they're JPG, is in the file, but Windows
is just showing you a random selection, if anything.

I think DateCreated is probably the only odd one,
and even that's not really odd if you think about it.
Though I think there was a big debate about this
somewhere recently.

As I just replied to Paul, I spotted an anomaly here with the Date
column. I need to play with it later.

As Paul said, that basic info is not in the file. It's
stored by the Windows file system. DateAccessed is
obvious, if mostly pointless. LastModified is the last
time that file was changed. DateCtreated is when
*that* file was created. If you move a file to another
drive it keeps the date. If you copy it there's a new
date. That makes sense if you think about it because
Windows is tracking files, not content. A copy has no
relation to the original file. It's as much a file as the
first was. DateLastModified is usually more useful.

There was a post long ago about the Date Created info changing when
copying to another partition, and it has stuck in my mind ever since. I
never had a reason to pursue this until it became an issue for my
brother-in-law, and now I want to know what all of these items do.

You certainly can't depend on the name to express clarity. I'm using W7
at the moment, and the one column we've been talking about is Date
Taken. Out of curiosity, I checked XP. There, it's called Date Photo
Taken. You tell me, which one is more explanatory?

Also noteworthy: This is only a Windows record. It
doesn't travel off-disk. It seems to only because things
like ZIP files and recorded CDs store the data. When you
then reconstitute a file on disk the ZIP software or
other entity sets the file times. There's a Windows API
function for that, called SetFileTime. You could set the
Created time yourself if you wanted to.

I can see where it would/could be helpful if it did travel off-disk. My
reasoning for this is if in the workplace you have a mixture of systems.

Once I've got Windows figured out, more or less, I want to compare that
to OS X.

I'm pasting 2 things below. I'm afraid they're both
bulky. First is a sample VBScript. If you copy it to
Notepad and save as fileinfo.vbs, you can drop any
file onto it to get info. It will write a fileinfo.txt
file to C:\ and also show as much data as will fit in
a msgbox.

If there are 2 things below, I don't know, for sure, where to split them
apart.

I assume I can change the drive and path in this line, "Set TS =
FSO.CreateTextFile("C:\fileinfo.txt", True)", to whatever drive and path
I prefer?

For anyone interested this script is an interesting demo
of Shell functions. It's looking at files from Explorer's
point of view rather than the file system. In fact, it
also has some odd quirks. On some systems it may
not list some system files or hidden files. That's because
as the Explorer API it's dealing with display of files.

I'll post another post with a list of attributes. I'd
give you a link but I haven't been able to find where
I got this list. It shows how varied the properties
are on different Windows versions.
Basically, Microsoft provide this functionality so
that people can design shell extensions. But they
don't really want the hoi polloi doing too much
customizing. So they like to break things willy nilly,
as a kind of wrench in the works of tweakers.

Here's the script:
'-------------------------- begin script --------
' ---------- WATCH OUT FOR WORDWRAP ------

Dim ShellApp, FSO, arg, FIs, Fol, FI, Pt1
Dim sFol, i2, sFil, i3, sProps, s2, iCount
Dim A1()
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set ShellApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
On Error Resume Next

arg = WScript.arguments(0)
If (len(arg) = 0) Then
MsgBox "Drop a file onto the script to retrieve all available file
properties."
DropIt
End If

ReDim A1(300)
sFil = FSO.GetFileName(arg)
'-- get parent folder path.
sFol = FSO.GetParentFolderName(arg)
'-- get ShellFolder object for folder path.
Set Fol = ShellApp.NameSpace(sFol)
'-- get Folder.Items collection.
Set FIs = Fol.Items
For i2 = 1 to FIs.Count
'-- go through folder items until a match is found.
If FIs.Item(i2).Name = sFil Then
iCount = -1
For i3 = -1 to 299
s2 = Fol.GetDetailsOf(FIs.Item(i2), i3)
If (len(s2) 0) Then
iCount = iCount + 1
A1(iCount) = s2
End If
Next
Exit For
End If
Next

If (iCount -1) Then
ReDim Preserve A1(iCount)
sProps = Join(A1, vbCrLf)
End If

MsgBox sProps
Set TS = FSO.CreateTextFile("C:\fileinfo.txt", True)
TS.Write sProps
TS.Close
Set TS = Nothing

DropIt

Sub DropIt()
Set FIs = Nothing
Set Fol = Nothing
Set ShellApp = Nothing
Set FSO = Nothing
WScript.quit
End Sub




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 2/24/18 4:06 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Ken Springer" wrote

| I wonder if this idea is similar to the old Resource Fork that used to
| be on Apple's System OS that predates OS X. I never owned a Mac back
| then, but had played with a couple.
|
File properties are part of file system data.
But Micorosft did explore a resource fork. That's
what ADS (alternate data stream) files are.
They were invented to accomodate the Mac
resource fork with MS Office. But they only
work on NTFS systems and the're a security
risk. The whole thing kind of fell apart. But for
a period of time MSO "comments" were being
stored as ADS files. That didn't work out so well
because they disappeared when moved from NTFS
and not all computers could handle them, since many
were still using FAT32 format.

Later ADS were used to tag downloaded files as
permanently insecure. Another idea that seemed
to make sense to someone at one point.

But ADS files are still there. You can hide 100 MB
of incriminating data by attaching it to, say, a family
photo and no one will know the difference.
Explorer won't show it. And of course that's also
a handy way for malware to hide.

The constant updates and dealing with malware was what prompted me to
check out Apple in 2009 when my XP system self-destructed. In
retrospect, I never really have enjoyed using Windows from the get go.
Just never felt "fun". Still doesn't. :-)

Of course I'd heard Mac couldn't be infected, which didn't take me long
to learn that was not true. I didn't get infected, just learned the
Macs weren't much of a target, although it's harder to be infected as
long as the user isn't stupid.

What really sold me on the iMac I bought was the visual quality of the
screen. That was it, if I could make the iMac fit on my desktop, I was
buying it.

And, I've never been sorry.

But the Mac is having hardware issues. Local whiz kid tech shop and I
both think it's the graphics card. But on this mobo, it's not a "bolt
on" card, so money and age says, don't fix it.

Personally, each new version of OS X/MacOS is less and less enjoyable
for me, with the new modern non-intuitive UI. So, I'm not sure what I
will do, since I don't want to give up the video display quality. It's
still better than anything I've seen for Windows units except for some
discontinued HP monitors and AOL monitors. And remember, this is not a
Retina screen.

If I do get a new Mac, it will be a Mac Mini, with an AOL monitor,
unless the rumored (AFAIK) new line of Apple monitors should appear first.

Obviously, W10 still installs updates like a bucket leaking water, so
I'm not interested there, either. Nor does all the cloud based activity
that both MS and Apple are moving to. I'm been doing a bit of
experimenting with Linux Mint, and at the moment I think Linux Mint will
do about 95% of the things I use my Mac for. I have noticed there are
more and more software vendors that are now creating Linux versions. My
preferred office suite on my W7 system now has an Android version for
tablets, they've just released a Linux version, and the Mac version is
in Beta 2. So for me, compatibility there won't be an issue.

I can't help but think that MS may believe Linux is going to go
somewhere, why else would have made that Linux whatever they call it. LOL


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

"Ken Springer" wrote

| You certainly can't depend on the name to express clarity. I'm using W7
| at the moment, and the one column we've been talking about is Date
| Taken. Out of curiosity, I checked XP. There, it's called Date Photo
| Taken. You tell me, which one is more explanatory?
|
I see what you mean. On the other hand, there are 3
dates possible in EXIF data. Which one is it?


| If there are 2 things below, I don't know, for sure, where to split them
| apart.
|
I ended up pasting the attribute list in a separate posting.
That list is important to interpret that data returned on
each system.

Windows is conflating several sources here. File properties,
EXIF data in JPG files, media data in music files, etc.

| I assume I can change the drive and path in this line,

Set TS = FSO.CreateTextFile("C:\fileinfo.txt", True)

Yes. Whatever you like. I was just putting something
simple. But it will need to be in a location you can write
to.

It's also not hard to collect EXIF data via VBScript, if
you wanted to do something like compile a listing of all
your photos:

https://www.jsware.net/jsware/scrfiles.php5#jpginf

But the info displayed in Explorer is easier to deal with, if
that's enough for you.

On 2/24/18 4:49 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Ken Springer" wrote

| You certainly can't depend on the name to express clarity. I'm using W7
| at the moment, and the one column we've been talking about is Date
| Taken. Out of curiosity, I checked XP. There, it's called Date Photo
| Taken. You tell me, which one is more explanatory?
|
I see what you mean. On the other hand, there are 3
dates possible in EXIF data. Which one is it?

I used the same file in XP and W7, and the dates matched for Date Taken
and Date Photo Taken.

In my Explorer display for the folder with the photo in it, I have Date
Modified, Date Created, Date taken, and Date. In addition, there are an
additional 9 columns all starting with Date. LOL

1 of the other 9 is Date Acquired. On the face of it, I'd say that
would refer to a scanner. But, can we trust it?

This is why I am looking for definitions of all of this. It's obvious
that MS doesn't care.


| If there are 2 things below, I don't know, for sure, where to split them
| apart.
|
I ended up pasting the attribute list in a separate posting.
That list is important to interpret that data returned on
each system.

OK.


Windows is conflating several sources here. File properties,
EXIF data in JPG files, media data in music files, etc.

| I assume I can change the drive and path in this line,

Set TS = FSO.CreateTextFile("C:\fileinfo.txt", True)

Yes. Whatever you like. I was just putting something
simple. But it will need to be in a location you can write
to.

That won't be a problem, I remember enough DOS to pull that off! LOL

It's also not hard to collect EXIF data via VBScript, if
you wanted to do something like compile a listing of all
your photos:

https://www.jsware.net/jsware/scrfiles.php5#jpginf

But the info displayed in Explorer is easier to deal with, if
that's enough for you.

For now, the Explorer info is enough.



--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"