Thursday, 25 May 2006 3:44 PM
darren
Vista Visions #4: Remove Personal Information Using Explorer
This Vista Vision was submitted by Grant Holliday
In Explorer, right click a word document and view the Properties then Summary tab. You will be able to view extra metadata associated with this particular file.
This is great, as it allows you to see what the document is about without having to open it up. However in a security conscious environment, you may not want anybody to be able to view this metadata.
I stumbled across a feature in Vista by accident whereby if you hold down SHIFT then right-click on the file in Explorer, you are presented with an extra menu option "removeproperties". Now because it's all in lowercase, I suspect it might be a hidden or not-yet-complete feature. (This is on Build 5365)

Once you select this extra menu option, a dialog is displayed which lets you selectively remove the metadata from the existing file, or make a copy of the file without the metadata included.

This functionality is already available within Office applications (Tools | Options | Security | Privacy Options | Remove personal information on file save), however now it's a feature of the OS.
Long live Vista!