Windows 11 Photos App / Meta-Data

[vsammy]

Hello
Do any of you know if the new Photos viewer app in Windows 11 changes the metadata of a file without asking? I haven't read anything about it on the web, but better safe than sorry...

vsa

[Mario]

Given Microsoft's rather, eh, mixed track record of working with metadata (we still see the damage done to metadata by various Microsoft applications over the years) I surely hope that Windows Photo leaves your file alone unless you explicitly edit it.

What I remember from a first test is that, for example, when you input a description, this not only updates the EXIF description but also the XMP description (good) and XMP title (not good) to the same text. Producing and maintaining high-quality metadata is surely not one of their goals.

On my system configured for German 24 hour format, the app forces me to input date and time using AM/PM. Bonkers.

I would not let touch these Microsoft toy apps any of my images, not even with a very long pole. They are designed with a minimal feature set for undemanding users and basically just a vehicle to make you store your files into the Microsoft cloud - as a subtle customer retention tool.

Many Microsoft and Adobe applications now default to storing files in the vendor cloud (and under their control) and no longer in the local file system. I wonder why that is...

[vsammy]

I don't plan to change/add any meta data with any program other than imatch.

In fact, with Windows Photo for Windows 10 (the previous Windows Photo), just displaying the images had changed the meta data. E.g. the data for face recognition was entered, etc.

That's why I was careful with the current photo program in Windows 11. I hope I can use the program simply for quick viewing (by default, Windows Photo is started to display a graphic format....) without any change to the meta data.

vsa

[Mario]

In fact, with Windows Photo for Windows 10 (the previous Windows Photo), just displaying the images had changed the meta data. E.g. the data for face recognition was entered, etc.

This happens only if you give explicit permissions (at least in the EU) to allow Windows to upload the images of your family and friends into the Microsoft cloud for analysis. At the same time you also agree to the fact that they can use the faces of your friend and family to "improve their services" - whatever that means...

Nobody should ever agree to such a thing. And in the EU this is even illegal unless you get the explicit permission of every person included in the images you allow Windows to upload. Or the explicit permission of parents if your images show minors. And that's a very good and important thing! Nobody in his right mind should ever allow Microsoft or Google or Apple or Facebook to make money from the faces of their relatives. Just my 2 cents.

This is why the IMatch face recognition runs locally and never uploads anything anywhere.
And when IMatch will ever get it's own image categorization AI, it will also run on your PC locally.

[mopperle]

@vsammy: Why do you use this shitty Microsoft toy at all? There are a lot of freeware alternatives around doing an excellent job in just viewing images, like XnView, Faststone Image viewer, Irfanview.....