In Windows Photo Gallery, you add some metadata to a picture file. When you open this picture in a third-party tool, some metadata fields for the picture file may be duplicated, dropped, or corrupted.

This issue occurs in Windows XP, in Windows Vista, and in Windows Server 2008.

For example, you open and save a .jpg picture in Windows Photo Gallery, and then you embed some metadata into the picture by using a third-party application. When you open this picture in Adobe Photoshop, you receive an error.

In this example, if you open the .jpg file in a hexadecimal editor, you see duplicated XMP metadata tags. One metadata tag is set to xmp:xmpmeta and the other one is set to x:xmpmeta.

Consider the following scenario:

• A digital camera uses the Adobe RGB color space to capture a photograph as a .jpg image file.
• You transfer the .jpg file to a computer that is running Windows Vista.
• In Windows Explorer, you modify the file’s metadata. For example, you change the star rating of the file.

In this scenario, when you use Adobe Photoshop to try to open the file, you receive the following error message:

The embedded ICC profile cannot be used because the ICC profile description is invalid. Ignoring the profile.

If you click Continue, the file opens without using the profile.

You use Windows Mail to download newsgroup messages. However, if you use certain date and time formats in some language versions of Windows Vista, Windows Mail does not download the associated metadata that is used to rate newsgroup messages and to vote on newsgroup messages.

For example, this issue may occur if you use an English version of Windows Vista that is configured to use a Japanese date and time format or a Traditional Chinese date and time format.

Note: This issue will not prevent you from reading newsgroup messages. This issue prevents you from using the feature that enables you to rate newsgroup messages and to vote on newsgroup messages. Additionally, you cannot see the details of the people who post to newsgroups.

When you use Windows Photo Gallery or Windows Explorer in Windows Vista to edit the metadata for an image file that uses the RAW image format, the file may be corrupted. The problem only occurs if the image file uses the TIFF image standard and was copied to the computer from either of the following digital SLR camera models:

• Canon EOS 1D
• Canon EOS 1DS

For example, this problem may occur in the following scenario:

• In Windows Photo Gallery or in Windows Explorer, you right-click the image file, and then click Properties.
• You click the Details tab, and then you change the information in any of the listed fields.

In this scenario, the file is truncated and cannot be restored. The image file can no longer be viewed.

Note: The metadata of an image file includes the following items:

• title
• subject
• author
• date details

When you try to use Windows Photo Gallery or Windows Explorer on a Windows Vista-based computer to add metadata to a Canon RAW file that has a .tif file name extension, the file is corrupted.

Update now and save your photos metadata! Keep reading →

When you update keywords, ratings, and other metadata information in Windows Photo Gallery, the updated information may not appear when you view the file in a different program.

When you edit the properties of a photo to add metadata in Windows Vista, the third-party software that is included with the digital camera may no longer recognize some proprietary metadata that the digital camera automatically adds to the photo. This metadata is specific to the manufacturer of the camera.

More metadata issues with RAW files. If I were a professional photographer I think I’d be waiting a bit more before using Vista for my work. Keep reading →

If you use metadata on your files, photos for instance, you may run into problems with non-vista software not being able to access that data. Keep reading →