I see. It's curious that Microsoft doesn't include some reminder of warning about all this and the options to clean the files. So, are you then saying that even files I've sent in the past which I haven't cleaned the Properties before sending, didn't contain any personal information as described - unless the file label I gave it has my name or the data I wrote in a doc. has my name in it?
No any file you have sent in the past will automatically include creation date / author and any other information as specified by your machine.
You must remember that Microsoft sells this product to a all consumers, those who need to know this information can find it freely on their website, but you have to see it from their POV that not every user needs to know this information, so why waste time telling the world about it.
Understood. So I'll clean file properties for files sent to those I haven't confirmed about their trustworthiness yet. For everyone else, it would be a good idea to minimize the default information Windows automatically adds to the file properties and the only thing that bothers me is my full name where previously described. I guess I mad that mistake when I initially set up this PC when I first bought it and set myself as the Administrator. Is there a way to change or rename myself, say to just an initial as the Administrator, so all file properties will only show that initial as the User, Author, Created by etc.?
Yes there is, Built-in Administrator Account - Change Name You want option 3.
But I would seriously suggest you setup a normal user account and, and use that for your day to day activities! Not only for security, but for ease of use, using the Admin account only for admin duties!
Ok. So to clarify, you're suggesting I do this for both the Built-In admin acct. (No.3) and the normal user account. Are the instructions the same? Also, once done, will all my existing files and properties adopt my new "Name" or just the ones created after I make these changes?
Firstly, no.
I am suggesting you leave the administrator account alone, and actually create a standard user account for your day to day activities.
During the creation of the standard account, you can set the name to whatever you would prefer, and it will become the author name on files created with that account.
The process is the same for both, however, i merely provided the link incase you so desire to rename your Admin account.
Yes, they will all reflect or 'Display' the changes made.
May i ask why you have suddenly decided to go on a purging spree, it is a lot of hassle for a standard user?
To reflect on your OP, security issues don't tend to get information from file authors, as they only tell a small story, if they are in a position to even access the file, that is the security issue.
Thanks for all you help on this. I need to wait a couple days to make the change as I have several windows open and don't want to close them yet and it's probably a good idea to close all programs before I make the changes. The reason I'm doing this is because I'm very careful with my personal and work information. I warn my friends constantly and they still get into all kinds of headaches with their bad online habits. I do antivirus scans weekly and try to search stealthily as a general practice. Still, every once in a long while I'll pick up a virus that does who knows what. I avoid Google, Facebook, loading scripts, etc. as much as possible, scan everything incoming and update financial passwords when necessary. I'm considering using the tor network in the future. I could get even more "paranoid" but as it is, it's a chore and I think my work and personal information is likely to be safe still. So, if this name change process is easy, why not? The less the snooping entities can find out to be used to possibly try to hurt me the better - I think.
Well it's not much to worry about if you're the only user with access to the files. If you want to share them and are concerned - a good test is to open the file on another machine and check file properties to see what's actually displayed.
Other than the "Create a copy with all possible properties removed" you could try the following:
For office documents the new [x] format shouldn't contain metadata anyway .docx ,xlsx but if you're using the old format .doc .xlx and so on you can remove and edit meta data using the following free software:
Document Metadata Cleaner
Works on MS Office but I've also tested it on other free office suites.
You can edit individual files or multiple files in a folder.
For image metadata I tend to use:
Rainbow Software - Programs
Note: You will still see info under Owner and Computer but these properties don't transfer when you send the file to another machine.
That's not true. The new formats can certainly contain metadata. The Document Inspector that comes with Office 2007 and above can remove this metadata from one file at a time. There is no free batch metadata remover for this files similar to Document Metadata Cleaner, but there is a commercial program called BatchPurifier that can do that (costs $19).
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