You can use third party software to remove metadata, like the previously reviewed Microsoft Word Metadata Scrubber or the JPEG and PNG Metadata Stripper.

Microsoft has added options to remove metadata from a number of files natively into the Windows operating system. There are basically two options available.

Remove Properties From Individual Files

The first option is to right-click a file, for instance a Word document, and select properties from the context menu. You then need to switch to the Details tab to see all the documents properties lined up.

You can click on the remove Properties and Personal Information link at the bottom of the window, or click in a specific field to remove, edit or add values. You could remove information about the author, comments or the subject from a document before sending it to a third party, or to add those information before you do.

This works well for single documents, not so much if you have to edit the file properties of several documents or files at once. Before we discuss that I’d like to point out that there is another option available. When you select a document in Windows Explorer you see some of its properties which you can edit right in the toolbar there without opening the properties.

Remove File Properties from multiple files

The following option is not working on all systems. I have yet to find an explanation for this. It does not work at all on my 64-bit Windows 7 Professional system for instance. Select multiple files in Windows Explorer, for instance some png, jpg, doc or pdf files.

Switch to Organize in the toolbar below the menubar and select the Remove Properties option from there.

Please note that Windows will create copies of the original files with removed properties. The idea here is to clean a number of files from sensitive information before sending them to a third party.

Questions that arise could be if the file is really needed on the system and if it is safe to delete it. Deleting a file without knowing what it does can have impacts on other applications that are installed on the computer. Executing the file could be the solution but also a security risk.

A better solution to get file information is to use a program that can display additional information without having to execute the file on the computer. Karen’s Version Browser is just one application that can do it.

The software has to be installed on the computer system. Once executed it provides an Windows Explorer like interface that the user can use to browse to the directory that contains the files that he wants to identify. Several filters can be used to display only files of a certain type like executables or dynamic link libraries.

The files that match the filters are displayed in a short box in the program’s interface. Three buttons below that interface can be used to gather the file information. View opens a new window entitled Version Information which displays all kind of information about the selected file.

Some of the more important file information that are displayed are the Product Name, Company Name and File Description. Some information are not displayed depending on the type of file that has been selected.

Those information can give a clue about the file and may aid the user in the decision making process. The other two buttons are used to print or export the file information. Karen’s Version Browser can be added to the right-click context menu so that it can be used from within Windows Explorer instead.

Experienced users would probably perform a search on the Internet if they cannot identify a file on their computer system. Most file information should be available online which means that some users might think that Karen’s Version Browser is unnecessary. It can still be used to check the exact version of a file which can provide important information.