Home > Digital Camera Blogs > Random Thoughts > Removing photo tags
Vista Home Premium Upgrade
Removing tags in Vista Windows photo gallery
I'm quite pleased with the Vista Windows photo gallery but had a heck of a time with unwanted tags.
The first time you open the gallery it reads and records all tags associated with images in your pictures folder. Well, I didn't know this and hundreds of tags appeared from stock photos I keep in the folder.
To my chagrin, I discovered I could only delete the tags manually...one at a time. UGH, hours of work. I began the time consuming task of deleting the tags, only to have them reappear. Evidently, the metadata from the stock photos was read again.
I spent hours over several day researching how to remove the tags in bulk, including searching the Microsoft Database. Nada! Finally, someone in a digital photography forum explained how.
For others who find themselves in the same predicament, there are two basic steps:
- Remove the tags from the image files.
- Delete two hidden files.
Removing tags from images in Windows Vista
- Select all pictures that you want to remove tags.
- Right-click with the mouse on any one of the photos and select properties.
- Next select details, click on tags and remove tag information and then press OK. The tags will be removed from the selected photos.
- Exit the Windows photo gallery. This is important!
Delete two hidden Windows photo gallery files
First, turn on the folder option so hidden folders become visible. Don't forget to make them invisible again after you complete the process.
Control Panel > Folder Options > View Tab > Hidden Files and Folders > Show hidden files and folders
The two files that have to be deleted are pictures.pd4 and NavTree.state. They are located in a hidden folder.
[drive letter]:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery
Delete both files and then open Windows photo gallery again. Windows will re-generate all photo thumbnails and tag information for those images that have tags.
Now, wasn't that fun?!
I realize that not everyone uses stock photos but if you do, hope you're reading this BEFORE you first open Vista Windows Photo Gallery. If you don't want to delete the tags, store the photos in a zipped folder.
Category: Random Thoughts (Archive)
