Quick answer
Right-click the photo, choose Properties, open the Details tab, and click Remove Properties and Personal Information. Leave the default option, Create a copy with all possible properties removed, and click OK. Windows makes a copy of the file and strips what it can from the copy; your original is untouched. Then check the copy.
Steps
- In File Explorer, select the photo (you can select several files).
- Right-click and click Properties.
- Open the Details tab.
- Click Remove Properties and Personal Information. The Remove Properties dialog opens with two choices.
- Choose one:
- Create a copy with all possible properties removed (the default). Microsoft says this makes a copy using the original file name with the word Copy added, and removes all properties it can change for that file type.
- Remove the following properties from this file. Tick the boxes next to the properties you want gone; clicking OK removes them permanently from the file itself, with no copy made. Microsoft notes that if no check box is visible, that property is not editable.
- Click OK, then open the new copy (if you used the first option) and look at its Details tab again.
If you choose the second option, work on a duplicate of the photo, because it changes the file in place.
Windows 10 and 11
The only Microsoft write-up of this dialog we could find is an archived tip written for Windows 7. Widely used how-to guides describe the same link and the same two options on Windows 10 and 11, but if your menu wording differs, look for the same link on the Details tab. We found no current Microsoft page that lists exactly what it covers on newer versions.
What this does not remove, and known limits
- Only what Windows can change. Microsoft describes it as removing the properties it can change based on the file type. Anything Windows does not expose is outside its reach, and the dialog does not report what it skipped.
- No list of metadata blocks. Microsoft's description does not say whether EXIF, XMP, IPTC and the embedded thumbnail are all covered, so do not assume they are.
- Not the picture itself. Microsoft is plain that it zeroes out metadata but does nothing with the contents of the file. Faces, street signs and house numbers stay visible.
- The original keeps everything when you use the copy option. Do not send the original by mistake.
- Nothing after upload. It cannot clean what a website or app stores once you send the photo.
Check the result
Drop the cleaned copy into the tool above. It runs in your browser and the file is never uploaded. It shows a before and after list of what the file held and re-reads the cleaned file to show exactly what is left, so you do not have to trust the Details tab alone. For JPG, PNG and WebP it can also do the whole job itself: it cuts out GPS, camera make and model, serial numbers, date and time, owner and software tags, the embedded thumbnail, XMP, IPTC and comments, without re-encoding, and keeps the ICC colour profile and a bare rotation flag on JPEGs. Related: see what metadata a photo has and the Mac version.