Today’s digital cameras produce large images, on average 5-6 megapixels or 2-3 megabytes (MB) in size. These images are too big for sending by email or for publishing on web. If you are sending photos for example of your family to your relatives you should shrink those images to 1 megapixel or less (size up to 1024×768 pixels and file size around 100 KB). That is the appropriate size for email. You would not want to receive 10-20 MB of large photos in your mailbox, especially if you are not on broadband.

There is a simple free utility from Microsoft that will help you shrink digital photos with few mouse clicks.

Get Image Resizer PowerToy:

1. Download Image Resizer

2. Run ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe setup file

3. Follow onscreen instructions until installation is finished

Using Image Resizer PowerToy:

1. Start Windows Explorer (click Start->All Programs->Windows Explorer or right click on “My Computer” icon and select “Explore”)

2. Locate images you want resize (jpg, gif, png, bmp and tiff images are supported)

4. Select image size that you want

Small – 640×480

Medium – 800×600

Large – 1024×768

Handheld PC – 240×320

Custom – width x height – enter maximum dimensions you want

Whatever size you select, don’t worry about photo aspect ratio, it will remain the same.

5. Check “Make pictures smaller but no larger” to make sure that small photos will not be enlarged

6. Leave “Resize the original pictures (don’t create copies)” unchecked

7. Click OK. Processing will take from one second to few minutes depending on your computer speed and number of photos you selected.

8. Original photos will remain the same, and new smaller photos will appear in the same folder only renamed. For example, if original photo is named “MyPhoto.jpg”, resized one will be named “MyPhoto (xxxx).jpg” where “xxxx” is “Small”, “Medium”, “Large” or “Custom” depending on size selected.

When sending email make sure that you attach smaller images with “(xxxx)” in their name.