Customizing Windows Explorer?

I've searched the tutorials about file and folder settings but I couldn't find this:

The windows explorer has a kind of status bar that can show details about my files. But how can I configure what details I want to see?
E.g. when I have a jpg file, Win seems to think it's a photo and it shows me the date when I took the photo, it shows ratings etc. But I don't want that, not all my jpgs are photos and I certainly don't need ratings.
And when I've selected multiple items, it doesn't show me the file size of the bunch, I have to do an extra click on "Show details" to see how big they are all together.

Any chance of customizing this?

No, I don't mean the details. I have them active anyway.
I mean the status bar at the bottom. When I have selected more than 15 items, the display looks like my screenshot. I have to click that line at the bottom (see arrow) to see how big they are all together. That's a nuisance because I often zip many items and I'd like to compare the size before-after zipping at one glance.

Somehow the explorer seems to have problems with multiple files anyway. When I want to open many small files at once (select all and hit enter) that only works with 15 files or less. With 16 or more nothing happens. XP didn't have that problem.

kenC said:

I don't usually use that bar at the bottom but just opened it and highlighted a few pics and the size showed (see s/shot)

You can right click on a page - choose 'sort by' and then 'more' and you get plenty of options (most of them useless) but they're there :)

Good luck.

Now this is weird. What you have on your screenshot is the status bar. I can switch that on and off too. But I have this additional bar (see my screenshot above) where it displays the file icon and some other useless info. It can be switched off via the layout settings, but then it doesn't show me the file size at the bottom at all.

I've managed to duplicate your bar at the bottom which is called the 'Details Bar' - but even that has the file size on it!!
If you right click on where it says '15 items selected' you can change the size of the bar and properties - don't know if that will help.

I'm getting the Status Bar from the 'view' menu at the top of the page - don't know if that makes any difference.

I think the answer to the main question of the post is "customizing lower bar is possible, but only via geek-style operations and therefore is not recommended".

Open "regedit.exe" and go to the key section

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\

Select for instance the ".ppt", therefore going to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.ppt

You can see a variety of entries are present. The one you would be interested in could be "InfoTips" or "PreviewDetails" or something else (for sure it's one of them, only I dunno which).

I know, it's messy and unconfortable. Why the hell MS decided to do it I don't know...

I'll try that and will let you know. Thank you! :)

esha - kenC uses Classic Shell to display the file size in the status bar. He probably installed it and forgot about it :)
You can download it from here: Welcome to Classic Shell
The advantage is that it shows the total size even if more than 15 files are selected, and also shows details about the current file if only one is selected.