Windows 7 Folder metadata in Windows Explorer

Ragnarsson

New Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
I have a 2 TB hard drive with over 1000 movies, with a folder for each movie, as each movie consists of one or more files, along with a jpg file with the movie cover.

Currently the title of each folder contains the movie title, the year of release, imdb rating and some other info.

Now I have upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, and want to use all those nifty Windows 7 Explorer details for organizing my movie collection. I want to shorten the title of each folder down to just the movie title, and move all the info into the relative fields in the file operating system, so I can sort by those various fields, e.g. when I want to watch the newest movies, or the ones with the highest ratings, etc.

I am aware of various applications on the market that are specifically designed for organizing one's media library, but that's not what I'm looking for. I want to use the Windows 7 file operating system to do this.

My problem is I can't seem to find a way to give a folder any metadata (aka details or tags) like I'm able to give video files or audio files.

So the question is: Does Windows 7 not permit metadata on folders?
 
I knew about SharePoint and various media database applications, but wanted to do this via the Windows 7 file operating system. I'll stop battling the windmills then.

Thanks zwit. Un point à vous.
 
You can't. But you can achieve this using SharePoint Link Removed - Invalid URL

Here's how:
Link Removed - Invalid URL

I registered just to answer this as I needed to find the answer as well. Your answer is mostly correct as you can hack it a bit to create "metadata".

Create a desktop.ini file inside the folder that you want to be labeled and paste in the code below. You can then change "Subject" to "Rap" or what have you. Then simply turn on the "Subject" category to be visible.
[{F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9}]
Prop2=31,Title
Prop3=31,Subject
Prop4=31,Author
Prop5=31,Keywords(Tags)
Prop6=31,Comment
 
thanks iconeo this was the most helpful answer. it's a bit complicated (because you can't just edit the metadata by clicking on it.you have to go in and edit the "desktop.ini" file), but it's the closest to folder metadata you can get on windows so far.

I wonder if Microsoft's new filesystem "REFS" will allow metadata with folders. I REALLY hope it will! it’s really simple, but it would change people’s way of working. imagine, you could sort your files kind of like you sort your email in GMail, with filters and search, instead of hierarchy. 1 file could be in more than 1 “folder”/filter at the same time. that’s the future! (here’s an article that explains the concept: Skytopia : Towards a single folder metadata (database) filesystem)
 
I registered just to answer this as I needed to find the answer as well. Your answer is mostly correct as you can hack it a bit to create "metadata".

Create a desktop.ini file inside the folder that you want to be labeled and paste in the code below. You can then change "Subject" to "Rap" or what have you. Then simply turn on the "Subject" category to be visible.
[{F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9}]
Prop2=31,Title
Prop3=31,Subject
Prop4=31,Author
Prop5=31,Keywords(Tags)
Prop6=31,Comment

Thank you for this info. I followed the steps above and was able to make the categories visible in Windows Explorer. Now can I use the Search tool to search for items in the various categories? For ex. if I want to search for all folders containing the words 'travel info.' in the keywords or tags. How do I do that?
 
Last edited:
I registered just to answer this as I needed to find the answer as well. Your answer is mostly correct as you can hack it a bit to create "metadata".

Create a desktop.ini file inside the folder that you want to be labeled and paste in the code below. You can then change "Subject" to "Rap" or what have you. Then simply turn on the "Subject" category to be visible.
[{F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9}]
Prop2=31,Title
Prop3=31,Subject
Prop4=31,Author
Prop5=31,Keywords(Tags)
Prop6=31,Comment


Hi there, what if I need to add "Category", "Rating" information in folder option. please let me know if you find any thing.

thanks.
 
Back
Top Bottom