Changing properties of multiple files in WinXP?

[Mandork]

I've searched all over the web and tried a zillion different programs, but nothing quite seems to do what I want.

I have a bunch (hundreds) of files that I would like to add a "comment" to, in the summary tab of the file properties.  As far as I can tell, the only way to access this is to right click-> properties-> summary -> and type in the comment (see screenshot).  I have tried selecting several files at once, but when you do this, the summary tab is all greyed out. 

Does anyone know of a way to edit several of these at once, or at least more quickly?  Even if I could just tab to the same field in the next item on the list, like you can in Windows Media Player (for example), that would be helpful. 

I messed around with recording a macro in DoOver, but I don't know how (or if it's possible) to make it generic, so that I could just select a file and hit a hot key that would go straight to the comments field.

Kind of like tagging, only for all files, not just music or photos.

Any suggestions?

[mouser]

there has to be a tool for this and it's a really nice question.
anyone?

[justice]

If you can give me the keys you press I can whip up a quick autohotkey script that you can assign a hotkey to
alt-enter for the properties
then right 3x for the summary tab?
then 6x tab for the commentbox?

[f0dder]

The stuff in the "Summary" pane is stored as a NTFS alternate file stream... I wonder if the format is public, and/or easy to reverse engineer. There might be some APIs or COM interface for manipulating this information as well.

* f0dder goes tinkering.

* f0dder is done tinkering:

[Select]

C:\q>streams Eula.txt

Streams v1.56 - Enumerate alternate NTFS data streams
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

C:\q\Eula.txt:
   :♣SummaryInformation:$DATA   144
   :{4c8cc155-6c1e-11d1-8e41-00c04fb9386d}:$DATA        0

And look and behold, this CodeProject article might just be of help.

[justice]

Until there's a solution that allows you to edit multiple files at a time *winks to f0dder* you can use the following script I enclose below, including AHK source if you feel comfortable with that.

Select a file and press scroll Lock (next to pause/break and printscreen) it will navigate to the comment field.

[f0dder]

I'd prefer somebody else to write the code - I hate COM with a passion, and the various constants and such necessary for this require a lot of digging around to find.

[Mandork]

Thanks for your effort!  However, the scroll lock AHK script seems to just open the properties window, which is the same thing that alt + enter does.  I still have to select the appropriate tab and field for each file.

As you might have gathered from my "visitor" status, I'm pretty much a complete dunce with anything to do with code, even AHK or HTML (!) code, although I'm trying to learn.  I searched around the interweb to try and learn something about the whole NTFS multiple data stream issue, and I'm afraid I was rapidly in over my head.  Although this may be pointless technophobia, it seems that perhaps you can mess up your files if you're not careful?  I don't know about that, though.

One thing I have come across that may be of interest or shed light, however, is:

A shell add-in/utility that adds an option to add a comment to a folder to the right-click menu in Explorer (uh, what is the right term in this context?), called Hob Comment http://www.dr-hoiby....CommentExt/index.php.  This will only work for one file at a time, though--it does not appear in the menu if you select more than one.

No idea how it was done, though!

[f0dder]

If nobody else wants to do it, give me a few days to gather some strength and dive into COM hell

[lanux128]

by mentioning Hob Comment, you have reminded me of the ContextMenu Commander thread which is like a repository of sorts for all kinds of shell extensions.. maybe you'll like to take a peek there..

[justice]

Is it just me or is there no longer a way to edit any of the fields on these tabs in Vista? Would you lose information if you migrated to vista?

[tomos]

... the right-click menu in Explorer (uh, what is the right term in this context?)

-Mandork (May 03, 2007, 12:41 PM)

ironically,
it's the Context Menu 

[Mandork]

ironically,
it's the Context Menu  smiley

Thanks!  I get confused in MS's documentation between shortcut, right-click, and context...they don't seem to use it consistently, probably in their quest to dumb things down for the confused.  Funny how not being forced to know the right term just makes it harder to figure things out....

Thanks for pointing out the ContexMenu Commander thread.  It looks like it's still in development...right?

[tslim]

Wht not try MetaChanger:
http://www.tilti.com...php?id=2_metachanger

[lanux128]

Thanks for pointing out the ContexMenu Commander thread.  It looks like it's still in development...right?

-Mandork (May 04, 2007, 04:35 AM)

glad to be of help, Mandork.. unfortunately, it still is..