How To

The modern day digital cameras include the time and date of the picture when you take snaps with them. This is very useful, when you see the pictures in future and want to know when it was taken. These details can be seen from the information along with the picture’s metadata when you transfer them to the PC. Fine, everything is good. But what would happen when you travel to a different time zone and forgot to reset the time and date in your camera’s settings? The digital camera would then stamp incorrect time and date onto your pictures. This is a common problem but fortunately, there is a great workaround available if you are using Windows 7. To see the “Time Taken” data of the picture, select the picture and then notice it on the details pane at the bottom of the window.

Let’s now see how to change the date when a picture was taken, on the Microsoft Windows 7 in 5 simple steps. Follow the steps briefed below.

I. Changing The Date When A Picture Was Taken:

Steps:

1. Open the folder where the target pictures reside.

2. Select the picture for which you want to change the date.

3. Now move your focus to the details pane at the bottom of the window.

4. Click next to the “Date taken” and then click on the calendar icon to choose another date.

5. Click Save to change the settings that you have just changed.

Tip: You may also choose multiple pictures in the step 2 by holding down CTRL while selecting one or more pictures.

Note: If you don’t see any details pane, it might have been disabled. Read our earlier tutorial to enable the details pane in Windows 7 explorer.

II. Changing Both The Time And Date When A Picture Was Taken:

The aforementioned method changes only the date on which the picture was taken but not the time when it was captured. Follow these steps to change both the time and date when the picture was taken.

Steps:

1. Press the Windows key on your Windows 7 machine and type photo gallery in the search box and open the “Windows Live Photo Gallery” from the results under the ‘Programs’.

2. Import the picture for which you want to change the date and time metadata and double-click on it to open it.

3. On the right hand side pane (Tag and caption pane), notice the “Information” section. You will see the ‘Date Taken’ data being listed there.

4. Click on the corresponding date and time values which you want to change.

That is it. The picture will have new values for “Date Taken” metadata. Isn’t that simple?

[Via: Microsoft]

Microsoft has always been keen to improve the search feature in Windows. With the launch of every new version of Windows, there have always been incremental improvements to the Windows Search. If you are using Windows 7, here are some advanced search tips and tricks to make the most out of the Windows Search.

Tip #1:

To search for files containing multiple terms (in any order) from your search query, just type all of those terms in the Search box:

For instance, if you want to search for multiple files or folder containing the terms “tropical”, “island” and “pictures” in any order, just type “tropical island pictures” in the Search box.

Tip #2:

If you want to look for files or folders in your computer containing a particular exact phrase, type your query within quotation marks in the Search box:

Example: “john holiday pics”

The above query will list all the files (or folders) that contain your exact search phrase.

Tip #3 – Using Boolean Operators:

If you want to find that contains at least one of the terms from your search query, use the Boolean operator OR in between the terms.

If you want to search for files that contain a certain term but not the other term, use the operator in between the terms.

Ex: tropical NOT island

Please note that the above said Boolean operators have to be used in uppercase.

Tip #4:

If you want to look for match only in the file names not inside the content of the files, type name: followed by the search keyword(s).

Usage:

name:techrena

Tip #5:

If you want to search for a particular file type, type *. followed by the file extension for instance type “*.jpg” info you only want to search JPEG pictures present on your computer.

You can also make use of the “kind” operator to search for files of particular type. There are several types to choose from like games, movies, music, pictures, folders etc.

Usage:

kind:=folder

Tip #6:

If you want to search only for the files that have been modified after a certain date, you can make use of the “modified:” (or “datemodified:”) search filter.

Tip #7:

Another search filter that can help you narrow down your search is “Size:”. Type ‘Size:’ in the Search box and choose the size limit so that the search can be limited to all the files under that limit.

Usage:

Size:>10mb

Tip #8:

If you want to search for files that are authored by specific person, use ‘”System.Author:” or just “author:” search filters.

Usage:

System.Author:Bharath

Author: “Bharath”

Tip #9:

This is to just achieve the opposite result of the tip #5 i.e. to search for files that aren’t of specific type. Here the operator <> means “not”.

Usage:

kind:<>folder

Tip #10:

To search for music tracks composed by a particular artist from your music folder, you can make use of the advanced “kind” operator.

Usage:

kind:=music artist: Beyonce

 

If you know some more Windows 7 search tips, let us know through comments.

 

Reference: Microsoft